Oh that is truer than you know. I have been told, not verified mind you, that there are still systems running COBOL in the govt....:) You will find older systems many times in state govts. not because there is no money to upgrade but because they won’t pay a competitive salary to attract the talent needed to upgrade these systems and maintain them. Some of my fellow grey haired IT buddies have been approached about doing upgrades, etc. but the pay offered is ridiculous. They can make more working part time than working for the govt. But that has always been the case sad to say.
” I have been told, not verified mind you, that there are still systems running COBOL in the govt....:)”
Probably. But what is really scary is they are probably the ones that launch the nukes.
Most government agencies have dozens of different computer systems of all different vintages in a hilarious chaotic patchwork.
This is partially the result of the appropriations system which occasionally gives money for upgrades and then a year or two later takes that money away.
One result is that different computer systems do not talk to each other or there are glitches when they do.
Adding to the fun is affirmative action or “equity” contracts means that the vendor skills are often mediocre. In the early days of affirmative action this was overcome by having a “front” minority owner with old white guy subcontractors doing the actual work. These days the .gov contract enforcement rules makes this more difficult—and the results are chaotic and unpredictable.
Ayn Rand called it—this ship is going down—slowly and gradually at first—and then at some point it will be too obvious to ignore.