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  1. #1

    $16 Muffins. A Story of Government Waste

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...hiK_story.html

    $16 Muffins
    $10 Cookies
    $5 per Swedish Meatball

    For every one of these examples, how many are unknown? When people talk about government inefficiency and waste, this is a good example of what they mean. It isn't government's own money, so they aren't compelled to spend wisely.

  2. #2
    Don't forget all the PS3s Odumba gives away to foreign diplomats.

  3. #3
    More oversight and regulation of the government's spending would be quite helpful. I think everyone could agree with that.

    Also, a $16 muffin better be the greatest muffin ever made on Earth.

    ---------- Post added 2011-09-21 at 05:42 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by Hedleyazg View Post
    Don't forget all the PS3s Odumba gives away to foreign diplomats.
    The difference here is that the OP has a source and you have random non-clever insults.

  4. #4
    These stories are generally quite misleading (I don't know enough about this particular story). Gov't usually grants procurement contracts for a certain amount (since they have to stick to a budget) but the final needed delivered amounts are not known in advance. Generally speaking, given the uncertainty for quantities needed the benefit of the doubt is given to the suppliers so that they won't lose money on gov't contracts and refuse to bid in the future.

  5. #5
    Scarab Lord Stanton Biston's Avatar
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    Catering is expensive, period. The price reflects not just the cost of the food, but the cost of service for the food including transportation and licensing and such.

    Seriously, go look at what a wedding costs to cater.

    There's this one restaurant chain here in Corvallis, Oregon called Qdoba. It costs about 50% more to have them tray up burrito fixings so that you can have people make their own burritos than it does to go in and have a burrito made.

    And they're taking those numbers from Law Enforcement conferences. There could be other costs built in, too.

    Don't ask why the muffin cost $16, ask why it needed to be catered.
    Quote Originally Posted by Callace View Post
    Considering you just linked a graph with no data plotted on it as factual evidence, I think Stanton can infer whatever the hell he wants.
    Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence - Sometimes I abbreviate this ECREE

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Stanton Biston View Post

    Don't ask why the muffin cost $16, ask why it needed to be catered.
    Exactly. I don't understand why they couldn't just have an intern go pick up the muffins and bring them over.

  7. #7
    Fluffy Kitten Remilia's Avatar
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    Only thing I find 'wat' is the cookies and muffins.

    $76 per person restaurant isn't that unheard of, is it expensive? Yes, however it isn't that unheard of in the restaurant industry. If you want a very good example, go to Las Vegas, you can see $100-200 per person there.

    However, this being a 'conference' however doesn't necessarily make it necessary to go to a 4-5star restaurant though, there is no need for that.
    beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres at $7.32 per serving struck a nerve
    Considering they can potentially come in at $18-20 per pound for the tenderloin its not that unheard of.

    Is it a waste of money? Well if its for a conference, maybe. However for those special night outs for your family, the prices aren't that awkward. (except for the cookie / muffins, thats just weird). Now the biggest issue is that this isn't 'their' own money. That's what bothers me the most. If this is coming out of their own pocket then I wouldn't give a damn.

  8. #8
    Why do they need expensive food? Why do they need to have it catered instead of having an intern pick it up?
    Who knows, maybe they fired the intern to save money and didn't think that plan through to the end.
    Maybe they enjoy spending money on things they don't need, this is America after all, we LOVE doing that.

  9. #9
    Stood in the Fire Ascend's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Jerion View Post
    Exactly. I don't understand why they couldn't just have an intern go pick up the muffins and bring them over.
    Then you'd be crying about inefficient manpower.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Dacien View Post
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/politi...hiK_story.html

    $16 Muffins
    $10 Cookies
    $5 per Swedish Meatball

    For every one of these examples, how many are unknown? When people talk about government inefficiency and waste, this is a good example of what they mean. It isn't government's own money, so they aren't compelled to spend wisely.
    Obviously someone has never heard of a "higher standard of living"

    ...go google how much that shit costs in CA vs. its cost in some bumfukt place like AL (granted the businesses will be different).

  11. #11
    Our meatballs are delish, you'll have to pay for it :<

    But seriously, welcome to the expensive world where a nice dinner costs $500 for two (and that's not so bad), either you can afford it, or you can not. Americans love to spend money and brag, guess the ones hired by the state isn't so far from the rest
    Last edited by eErike; 2011-09-21 at 10:03 PM.

  12. #12
    wait wait wait
    how is charging $16 a muffin wasting money on the gov'ts end? maybe its how they're gonna get out of the 14 tril worth of debt
    PlayStation suporter.
    fb_Scud / RPG-HAD

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by eErike View Post
    Our meatballs are delish, you'll have to pay for it :<

    But seriously, welcome to the expensive world where a nice dinner costs $500 for two (and that's not so bad), either you can afford it, or you can not. Americans love to spend money and brag, guess the ones hired by the state isn't so far from the rest
    That's a given, people will go out and spend money on completely utterly and useless things and then whine about how others do it. I know people who spend 100+ a month on things like alcohol, or 300+ a month on clothes, and then they go around acting like ppl who buy other things are stupid.

  14. #14
    The government has no reason to be "efficient", and there is no one really pressuring them to do so. Aslong as the person that decides what to get, can go over budget then there will never be efficieny. Aka no pressure, so a huge waste of money.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by xile View Post
    That's a given, people will go out and spend money on completely utterly and useless things and then whine about how others do it. I know people who spend 100+ a month on things like alcohol, or 300+ a month on clothes, and then they go around acting like ppl who buy other things are stupid.
    We have a saying in Sweden: "Det är lätt att se stickan i andras ögon men inte balken i sitt eget". Roughly it says "It's easy to see the splinter in others eyes but not the beam in your own" and I think it fits very good in situations like this :P

    $100 is rather little tbh, converting that to Swedish Kronor that' pretty much what one would spend on alcohol one night out on pubs in Stockholm :P

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by smartAXE View Post
    wait wait wait
    how is charging $16 a muffin wasting money on the gov'ts end? maybe its how they're gonna get out of the 14 tril worth of debt
    Because it's indicative of a financially irresponsible mentality, which in these times is quite worrying. It's not like it's any surprise, but the spotlight needs to be shone upon things like this.

    ---------- Post added 2011-09-21 at 03:09 PM ----------

    Quote Originally Posted by xile View Post
    That's a given, people will go out and spend money on completely utterly and useless things and then whine about how others do it.
    Because it's my money they took that they're wasting.

  17. #17
    Bloodsail Admiral MuricaIsDead's Avatar
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    this reminds me of the news story during the reagan years about $5000 toilet seats and $400 screwdrivers.

    gov't is wasteful. always has been... won't always will be; when the revolutions start...soon...

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Dacien View Post
    Because it's indicative of a financially irresponsible mentality, which in these times is quite worrying. It's not like it's any surprise, but the spotlight needs to be shone upon things like this.

    ---------- Post added 2011-09-21 at 03:09 PM ----------



    Because it's my money they took that they're wasting.
    Then move to a different country, all they're doing with the money that they are spending is using it to buy things that go into the economy. I mean they're essentially creating jobs by buying this food, in the first place. People whine so hard about what "x" does, when the big issue in America is that we don't have enough jobs in America because there isn't that much demand because not everyone is employed, there is such a high unemployment rate because we allow large companies to ship billions of dollars of goods from other countries that pay their workers 10 cents an hour and we have such a high and rising machine work force. Like the government can't just create jobs out of thin air, they can throw money into the private sector as a means to create jobs, which is what they're doing with these obscene prices.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by shewkoi View Post
    this reminds me of the news story during the reagan years about $5000 toilet seats and $400 screwdrivers.

    gov't is wasteful. always has been... won't always will be; when the revolutions start...soon...
    Do I need to get tickets or is this an invite only thing?

    Do I get a +1?

  20. #20
    Quote Originally Posted by shewkoi View Post
    this reminds me of the news story during the reagan years about $5000 toilet seats and $400 screwdrivers.

    gov't is wasteful. always has been... won't always will be; when the revolutions start...soon...
    Yeah, there won't b a revolution in this country in my lifetime, plain and simple.

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