Is the Pope German?
In the immediate hurricane aftermath, it took only minutes after Blanco’s announcement of hiring Witt for Freepers to start predicting this outcome. Inevitable. 100% predictable. Nothing more or less expected.
And this walking shrine to the Peter Principle was still more competent than Blanco.
If Vitter didn’t walk into his own mess this month, this could have been another nail in the La. Dem party coffin.
Found the thread i was looking for, lo and behold, you posted it.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476788/posts
40-50%gross margins for emergency services is not uncommon. There are lots of mobilizations costs that need to be factored in plus a company has to factor in those times when they need to be available but not busy.
Then there are the taxes that need to be paid on gross sales which include payments to subcontractors.
However, when I worked at Headquarter Air Force Space Command, I was amazed at the final contracted labor (as well as other) costs that come about through the normal (well, normal for the Government) process of contracting out Government work.
Additionally, unless the values quoted in the article are further defined as to the type and category of labor (which will determine what the final, contractor billable, labor hour costs end up being), comparing these hourly costs to each other may, or may not, be valuable.
It took me quite a number of years to learn how much of a budget projection (3-5 years out, on a rolling yearly submittal, revised as directed by congressional annual actual budgets) to submit (with both an inflation and cost of money percentage factored into the submittal).
Bottom-line: I regularly tell people that the American public should be very wary of solving anything through the Federal (and lower levels of) Government. Efficiency is not the Government's forte.