Don't Invent Machines

I didn't catch much of the news between cooking on the grill and getting stuck in the shop during the downpour, but I did catch something that ties into something that I've complained about before.  It had to do with a bunch of people complaining about Onondaga county purchasing machines.



I have stated in the past that I have lived in CNY all my life.  We constantly joke that there are 2 seasons, winter and construction.  With all of the recent budget cuts to the county and state budgets, they are attempting to stretch dollars by patching pot holes rather than repaving the road as often.  This particular story started talking about how Onondaga county has purchased a single self-contained machine that not only fills the holes but does it better, safer, and faster than the team of people that is normally required.  One of the advantages of this machine is that one machine prepares the pot hole and fills it.  The other major advantage is that literally minutes after it is done cars can drive on it rather than the 30 minutes with the traditional method.  In fact, having cars drive on it shortly after the fill is put in helps it adhere to the original road.


So that sounds like a really good thing, right?  Well it is for anyone who drives on the roads in Onondaga county as it will mean fewer pot holes and fewer delays while they are repaired.  It isn't if you are one of the lazy people that are being replaced by a machine that can do more than 10 times the work as you at a much lower cost in materials and labor as well as deliver a better finished product while improving worker and driver safety!  That's right, people complaining are those that will probably lose their jobs because this machine will save a significant amount of money.  Perhaps if they were extremely lazy and purposely slow we wouldn't be in this predicament!  Many people have jokingly said in the past that something is good enough for government work, and that is really the truth.  There is a reason it is much cheaper for a municipality to pay a contractor to perform work than it is to pay employees to do it.  The contractor has to meet a deadline so they don't allow their employees to stand around and just watch others work.  I have seen it many times where there are 3 engineers watching 2 crew members perform the work.  It is hard to find someone who puts in as little effort as a government employee that is paid hourly.


And this brings us to what I have complained about in the past.  These people want to be paid a huge sum of money to do very little work.  But they want that along with lower taxes!  Give me a break, you can't have your cake and eat it too.  The world doesn't work that way!