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Brain Drain, Admin Failures Threaten the FCC's Role

Posted by Soulskill on from the outsource-it-to-india dept.

coondoggie writes "The Federal Communications Commission has brain drain and administration problems that could decrease its effectiveness at a time when advanced service technologies such as wireless and broadband present significant regulatory challenges. On the brain drain front, a report out today (PDF) from watchdogs at the Government Accountability Office stated that from fiscal year 2003 to 2008, the number of engineers at the FCC decreased by 10%. Similarly, the overall number of economists decreased by 14%. While the total number of engineers and economists in the workforce has decreased from 2003 to 2008, the percentages remained the same. The GAO also criticized the FCC's public comment policy, saying, 'While FCC relies heavily on public input to inform its decisions, it tends to do so without giving the public access to the actual text of a given proposal. If parties are able to submit vague summaries that may not fully reflect meetings between FCC officials and outside parties, then stakeholders will continue to question whether commission decisions are being influenced by information that was not subject to public comment or rebuttal and that, in some cases, is submitted just before a commission vote.'"

4 of 121 comments (clear)

  1. More Than One Way to Deregulate by mpapet · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Another regulatory agency being gutted right before our eyes. At what point do Americans call 'enough!' on corporate hegemony?

    Enjoy your corporate deathburger: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3pIDSQ1rdA

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    http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
  2. Wouldn't have anything to do with OUTSOURCING? by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "...from fiscal year 2003 to 2008, the number of engineers at the FCC decreased by 10%."

    Gee, that wouldn't have anything to do with OUTSOURCING, would it?

    Some idiot with a microphone will soon start blaming the education system. It's NOT the education system. It's the MONEY system. No rational, self-interested human is going to spend a lot of time and money to enter a field where they get to compete with people making $12 per hour. If the government is serious about getting more engineers in the USA, there's a simple, easy answer. PAY THE ENGINEERS WHAT THEY'RE WORTH, not "What the wage-arbitraged market will bear."

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    Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    1. Re:Wouldn't have anything to do with OUTSOURCING? by scamper_22 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem is the rest of society is not paid a wage-arbitrated market value :P
      A large part of the economy is the public sector which just negotiates its pay with government and is not market based.
      Doctors and lawyers limit their market supply and increase their demand via regulations ...

      As such an engineer faces a severe imbalance in the West. They are talented enough to enter one of these jobs with an inflated pay scale not tied to the market. That is where they are going.

      If we were all paid a market arbitrated wage, then there would be no problem. The market would in fact sort out these kinds of issues. Globally, I am probably worth $15 dollars an hour as an engineer. Globally, a teacher is probably worth $8 dollars an hour... There is a reason most western countries have severe structural deficits.

      That portion of their society receiving non market arbitraged wages is grown too large relative to the market wages... and have not been corrected.
      As Detroit's economy collapsed and high paying manufacturing and engineering jobs were lost... should that not have translated to lower wages for the public sector, doctors, lawyers... in that region?

      We need to pick one system and stick to it as much as possible.
      Either we let freedom reign and let people pay others what they think they are worth (market system).
      Or we have some abstract pay scale where people negotiate their wages with the government.

      Either way, it has to apply to most of society equally.

  3. Take a number, FCC by MikeRT · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From late 2007 on, the federal government has been "quietly" laying off contractors left and right. It just so happens that most federal engineers are contractors...

    Bitch all you want about the state of things, but the fact is that it's cheaper for the federal government to outsource this work. Contractors can be fired without mercy and don't require a pension (more pay up front in exchange for no pension is a deal for the tax payers, especially as life spans climb.)