Wednesday, October 06, 2021
Pork-busters are always idiots
I haven't mocked pork-busters in a long time.
While looking up old info about IBM systems, ran across this 1926 report from the US Govt Printing Office. It's a perfect example of idiotic penny-pinching.
Someone in the GPO had the idea of saving cost and eliminating "unfair profit" by making their own tabulators.
Negotiations are in progress with the Post Office Department, and with other departments and bureaus of the Government which are engaged to any considerable extent in statistical work, for the purpose of introducing the tabulating machinery which has been invented, developed, and manufactured in the bureau's mechanical laboratory. The representatives of the Post Office Department have arranged for a practical test of the tabulating machine. This machine can also be used advantageously on cost accounting, and the bureau is already making such use of it, with highly satisfactory results. It makes possible the preparation, with a minimum of time, labor, and expense, of either general or detailed cost statements, in accordance with the “classification of objects of expenditure" adopted by the General Accounting Office. I feel very strongly that a material saving can be effected by the introduction of the bureau's tabulating machinery in other branches of the Government.But those other departments were already using Hollerith machines and Hollerith cards. They didn't WANT to switch, and they didn't even want to start using GPO cards in the Hollerith machines, based on experience. The GPO cards didn't fit right. GPO tried to assert conflict of interest:
In a letter of August 19, 1925, the Postmaster General wrote as follows: Under the terms of the Hollerith contract with the Government, their machines are leased with the express stipulation that they be used only for the tabulation and assorting of cards of Hollerith manufacture. The Federal Trade Commission also stated in its reply of August 4, 1925, that it had entered into a similar contract with one of the tabulating machine companies. Admission of this exclusive and tying contract, which appears to be a violation of the Clayton Act...But it didn't work in the end. Hollerith had perfected the SKILL of making tabulating machinery AND the cards to match. This was the unique American advantage, before we threw it away in the '70s. We knew how to turn an invention into a SYSTEM, with all of its pieces and connectors working together. Using machines that don't work as well, with no service available, and with cards that don't fit, is NOT the way to save costs. The most important cost is downtime, not initial expenditure. SKILL is always the most important variable. The SKILL of the various departments would be wasted by forcing them to use inadequate and unserviceable machinery. Human capital matters infinitely more than money capital. IBM made huge profits BECAUSE it understood this point. Now, of course, we aim for Share Value instead of profit, so 100% downtime is the sole purpose and goal of the economy. No work, no skills, no production, no employees, no products, no customers, no humans. Just Bezos and machines.
Labels: skill-estate
¶ 11:03 PM
