Posted on 02/18/2010 6:27:47 AM PST by highlander_UW
Who could forget the $5 billion in Obama administration stimulus money that was going to rapidly create nearly 90,000 green jobs across the country in these tough economic times and make so many thousands of homes all snuggy and warm and energy-efficient these very snowy days?
Well, a new report due out this morning will show the $5-billion program is so riddled with drafts that so far it's weatherized only about 9,000 homes.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimesblogs.latimes.com ...
$787,000,000,000 / 4,000,000 = $196,750 spent per job created
The stimulus is a disaster even if you use THEIR numbers!
If they just gave everyone out of work $60k they'd have created over three times as many "jobs"...and people could live well on that for a year, whereas the weatherstripping jobs last a few days. Good thing we have Sheriff Joe on the job or we'd be even more screwed by Obama.
Well, we’re doing some remodeling right now...new doors and some new windows, plus a new shower for the master bath...It would be nice to have a little help on this bill!!! Wonder if I can get $57,000 for doing this? HA.
I spent whatever dollars were left after paying the electric bill for weather strips around the doors, yet the bill keeps going up. This winter, thanks to global warming, I am constantly wrapped in a blanket - even now. Heck, that pony he promised would have added some heat.
In a strange coincidence, every taxpayer’s share of Obama’s $4 Trillion 2011 budget will be $57,362 each.
And yet only 9000 houses got insulated...but that's a fair trade off...just spreading the wealth from the entire freaking nation to weatherize 9k houses. It wouldn't be so bad that we have a clown for a president if he weren't so malicious.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPRBQHfvETQ
Sorry, I derailed the thread a bit there. I didn’t mean to imply that the entire 2011 budget will in fact be spent on these houses. It’s just that the numbers really are very similar.
Wow, 60K per taxpayer, and that’s just for 2011. The only thing buffering America against colossal devaluation will be the parallel colossal devaluations of the Euro and the Pound.
If the doors and windows meet fed standards for energy efficiency, you can get up to $1500 off your taxes (one-third the cost of the materials).
I’m in the insulation business and retrofit hundreds of homes per month. We received RFP’s (requests for proposals) for weatherization programs and the paperwork compliance is so silly that we refused to supply bids for it. We would have to comply with dozens of crazy paperwork rules and have to pay Davis-Bacon wages for the crews. A job that we can do privately for $500 would cost $1,000 or more due to the irrational requirements. Classic example of well-intentioned government gone wrong.
Most of the money that the government has spent has gone to local governments who are supposedly setting up departments to administer the weatherization programs. So, in other words, the stimulus money went into the black hole of local governments, never to be seen or heard from again.
Much of my professional career has been in purchasing and inventory management. Briefly I worked for government procurement (while putting myself through college) and I've worked for companies who supplied the government as well as ones that wanted to but were put off by the mounds of regulations.
I don't know if you recall a big deal about $300 hammers a good number of years ago. The way that happens is regulations. To buy something a description of it has to be developed. True to government form, a very specific description is required. So that hammer will end up being specified not just by it's weight but also by length, type of wood in handle if it's wood and a precise metallurgy. It's that last bit that really runs the cost up because the government will require quality control checks at some frequency...maybe one every 10k hammers made or something. Metallurgy tests aren't cheap...and those records need to be kept for like 7 years, and they need to be reported, and if a slight deviancy is discovered the lot needs to be returned or excepted by the government. It becomes so expensive to deal with the government that most companies won't do it...which means there are only a few possible sources...which reduces competition.
Most of the money that the government has spent has gone to local governments who are supposedly setting up departments to administer the weatherization programs. So, in other words, the stimulus money went into the black hole of local governments, never to be seen or heard from again.
I've said it before and it remains true...government is the worst conduit of resources to achieve any desired result.
Considering that the average per-person share of the US National debt is greater than $40,000, I don’t think I can really afford to have my home weatherized for me. Besides, if the government is “doing it for me”, my house will probably end up in the same condition as our roads, airport tarmacs, bridges and railways.
If the government is going to do it for you then expect it'll be completed by the end of the decade...maybe. They've only done 9,000 houses out of how many in the nation?
The list, ping
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