On Bidding for Government Contracts and Foreigners
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A house divided against itself cannot stand. – Abraham Lincoln
Northrop Grumman Corp. and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space Co., has (had) won a contract from the air force to build tankers. There is a pretty big outcry over this. Congress is upset. 50,000+ jobs are going to Europe, while 2000 stay (for GE). (CNN)
Well, EDS says
About 60 percent of the Northrop aircraft will be built in the U.S., and 40 percent overseas, Randy Belote, a Northrop spokesman, said in an e-mail today. Northrop’s team will support more than 25,000 jobs in the U.S., he said.
Who to believe on the jobs thing? Who the hell knows.
Personal, I think a leading country, should build it’s own military assets. Lots of people buy one another’s military assets, however, it’s unlikely they’ll be going to war with those countries as they are allies. Or the technology is out of date. Note: The tankers are not new technology, they are just tankers. The technology that will go into them is still 100% American.
This is my problem:
Why are you going to have an open bidding system if the foreign country can’t win? i mean, they CAN win, but what’s the sense in getting mad if they do? You can’t really give the Airforce a mandate to go for the lowest bidder or better value without also including that the company has to either keep the jobs domestic or be domestic. I say that because many companies are so multinational, it’s hard to call a single one for a single country. This means the jobs will be everywhere and all over. Get real.
First, give them direction, then whack them when they screw up. You’re congress! exorcise some power!
OceansOfThought @ March 5, 2008