Cost of contractors.

• Author: Doyle, Geoffrey
• Position: READERS' FORUM: VIEWS ... COMMENTS ... SUGGESTIONS - Letter to the editor

This letter is in response to comments made by Acting Undersecretary of the Army Nelson Ford that were reported in the May 2008 issue of National Defense (Washington Pulse, p. 10) that "government workers cost much less than contractors for the same work." I find this comment very misleading, and perhaps based on incomplete information. If this statement were true, why has the government "outsourced" so much work to the private sector? Shouldn't the government in fact be making only those choices that lower costs for the same work? For example, commercial companies that are operating dining facilities on military bases, or in my own case, providing technical support to government owned and operated laboratories.

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I have spent a fair amount of time searching the Bureau of Labor...