Slashdot Mirror
Data Miners Moving to Offshore Data Havens
schwit1 writes "Washington Post has an article about former TIA personnel moving their data mining operations offshore (Bahamas) to escape
U.S. privacy rules, and to make a buck. I'm waiting for somebody to publish the private data (financial, medical, legal) of federal officials and their families on an open internet web server out of the Bahamas. Is this what it will take for the US to enact stringent privacy rules?"
http://www.willametteweek.com/story.php?story=3507
The guy who designed the system is going offshore, because the government couldn't get the greenlight and hoping to find private backers.
Bell said he did not become involved with Global until after he left government in March.
The contracts are for the Medical Services Plan, which covers all residents of BC, and Pharmacare, which covers drugs. The provincial government has amended the privacy laws in an effort to satisfy critics, but a lot of people aren't convinced that this will do the job. I can't find an article on the privacy law amendments right off, but here's a link to a statement by the BC Government Employees Union (which admittedly has other concerns about outsourcing), and here is a BC government page with relevant information.
For the lazy, the full text of the "presidents management agenda" can be found here. The outsorcing of jobs in government starts on page 17. Here is a quote... "Nearly half of all federal employees perform tasks that are readily available in the commercial marketplace - tasks like data collection, administrative support, and payroll services." Another good quote is "Government should be market-based -- we should not be afraid of competition, innovation, and choice. I will open government to the dicipline of competition. GWB". And if you are interested, here are "scorecards" of how things are going. India, here we come! See, its not only programming, its our entire government. They must all go to the same conferences.
I've worked for the government. I've worked for large industry. Beleieve me- there is NO difference. Small industry might have some by benefit of size, but there is no inherent inefficiency just because its public instead of private. And it ain't gonna be the little guys getting the big money contracts. If anything the government doing things is *cheaper*- they aren't any more efficient, but you also aren't paying them a profit.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Unfortunately, the original poster is incorrect. The US actually spends more, per capita, than Canada--and yet perversely, we get less for it.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/53/31963451.xls
Canada - US$2,939 (2002)
US - US$5,267 (2002)
According to an October 3, 2002 article in The Economist, the US costs are split ~50/50 between private and public funds. Canada is 30/70 private/public.
There has been discontent with the current Canadian system for years, however. Low wages for health workers in some provinces have lead to walkouts and work stoppages, and patients are increasingly pushing the boundaries of what are "medically necessary treatments" which Medicare will cover.
What in the fuck are you talking about? Most importantly, Canada is a former British colony. The United States is also a former British colony. The subs in question are diesel subs. Nuclear subs have never been a (reasonable) option, Canada has no nuclear arms at all. In reality, the British subs happened to be for sale about the same time as the existing subs were due for either major refits or replacement. The initial cost for the British was 800,000pounds, and Canada purchesed them for CAD$750,000, less then 1/2 price, ignoring 10 years of inflation. Even spending twice as much on refits and "Canadianization" of the boats then has been spent, they would still be a good deal.
Submarines are inherently dangerous things. It is entirely possible that there was no design flaw, no flaw in workmanship, and no crew error that caused the fires.
"Canada" hasent purchased any trains. CN is a publicly traded comapny, and has significant investements in US rail systems. Via Rail, a crown coporation , which has some new cars, purchased them from Alstrom, which is headquarters in France.
Canada has purchased military hardware from lots of countries, including France. I cant off hand think of any major system from France... But I also cant think of any major French military system at all. Well, thats not true, I know France is part of various european conglomorates building military hardware.
The United States is obligated to assist Canada if it is ever invaded. As is Belgium, Denmark, France, the UK, Italy, Iceland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal... All the NATO nations - amongst others. Even if not so obligated, removing a hostile force from a bordering counrty would actually be a good reason for the US to go to war -- and we are all aware of the flimsy excuses they need to do that.
Health care is like roads. You can't have competition there; there isn't any real competition in the US. If there were, people would not lose their houses to hospitals, because everyone could afford medical care. Er, sorry, insurance. Health care isn't significantly cheaper in Canada than in the US. It is the HEALTH INSURANCE that is FREE, because it's provided by the government. This insures that every hospital and every doctor and every nurse is PAID for the work performed on a patient, so they don't have to go out and run after patients.
By doing away with the competition, you eliminate all the duplicate employees who do the same job in every private insurance company. With no competition, everyone is on the same footing; everyone has the same coverage, so you do not need any employees to check whether some patient treatment is covered or not by his insurance plan. With the government providing the insurance to every citizen, you do not need to check whether they are insured or not or check their credit record.
And, lastly, when the government runs the insurance, it doesn't have to make a profit. Not having to make a profit is the best recipe to keep it cheap, without competition.
Basically, this is why the canadian universal health-care system works, because it entirely did away with the corporate bullshit (credit checks, varying coverage and, most importantly, PROFITS) that is so prevalent in the US system.This is a preconceived notion that make americans say the government is bad. And it makes bright people not want to work for the government. And if politicians believe that government is bad, they will damn well make sure that government is bad.
When you vote, do not vote for the one who sounds the sweetest. The guy is a whore whoring for your vote so he can get his power fix (and don't worry, once you voted for him, he'll discard your concerns like an used tampon). Instead, vote for the one who believes that government can be good.