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To: chimera
As I said private industry does not always punish failure evenly, but it does punish failure. Of course the closer a company is to being a government contractor (like HP) the closer it gets to acting like government in tolerating failure.

But even HP have suffered due to Fiorina's mismanagement. Last I checked she is no longer in charge of HP. It is the fault of HP's major investors if she was allowed to skate away with a golden parachute. I'm sure she lost quite a bit in stock options, that she would have received had she done the job right.

No one is claiming the marketplace is perfect or fair, but certainly the government gets it wrong almost always - and never generates a greater return on investment (taxes) than private industry which is expected to day in and day out.
166 posted on 09/30/2005 9:58:53 AM PDT by anymouse
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To: anymouse
But even HP have suffered due to Fiorina's mismanagement. Last I checked she is no longer in charge of HP. It is the fault of HP's major investors if she was allowed to skate away with a golden parachute.

Nah. The "investors" never had a say in that deal. The BoD paid her off so they could cover their own butts. A bunch of spineless wimps. Better to admit you made a mistake and fire the person who cornholed your company instead of sending them off to wreak another company with another $20 mil in their pockets.

I'm sure she lost quite a bit in stock options, that she would have received had she done the job right.

Maybe. Shoulda woulda. But all I know is I could get by quite nicely on a $20 mil bonus for screwing up, stock options or no.

... but certainly the government gets it wrong almost always - and never generates a greater return on investment (taxes) than private industry which is expected to day in and day out.

Well, I don't know about that. I was part of a government-university-industry technology development program that came up with quite a bit of new technology in the radiation imaging field. Some of that was commercialized and is quite widespread now in the commercial sector. No, there wasn't a direct refund of taxpayer dollars for the "government" portion of the funding, but there was quite a bit of indirect payback. Development of new technology, manufacture of various products, jobs created, tax revenues generated by increased economic activity, things like that. In short, the kind of good stuff you'd like to see government (as a partner, in this case) doing.

167 posted on 09/30/2005 12:59:59 PM PDT by chimera
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