It's one thing for Milton Friedman to tell us the theory about why we are careless when we spend other people's money. It's another to see it in practice:
I'm not sure what you're looking for at FatCratz, but this is the first thing I thought of when I saw the site. I was working on a project at [federal agency XYZ] that required us to deliver 1500 or so large, bulky packages packages to participants nationwide. We'd never done anything quite like this, and we figured out that we could ship these things ground rate with fedex for a reasonable rate, $30 or so apiece for 3-5 days. Less than $50,000 for the whole job.
Like all government programs, we got behind schedule. Months behind schedule. But finally the shipment went out. In the course of reviewing the shipping invoices to track down a few stray packages, members of the team were shocked to find out that the items hadn't gone out ground rate after all. In fact, they had gone out FedEx overnight. In fact, they had gone out Fedex overnight, MORNING DELIVERY. So while the materials arrived months late, at least they got there before noon.
Of course, this came at a cost which varied widely based on destination, but averaged well over $100 per item, or $150,000 in total. We all knew who did it, but there didn't seem to be any repurcussions.
Like all government programs, we got behind schedule. Months behind schedule. But finally the shipment went out. In the course of reviewing the shipping invoices to track down a few stray packages, members of the team were shocked to find out that the items hadn't gone out ground rate after all. In fact, they had gone out FedEx overnight. In fact, they had gone out Fedex overnight, MORNING DELIVERY. So while the materials arrived months late, at least they got there before noon.
Of course, this came at a cost which varied widely based on destination, but averaged well over $100 per item, or $150,000 in total. We all knew who did it, but there didn't seem to be any repurcussions.
Sure, it's only a hundred grand. But try to do that in a small business and keep your job.
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