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Comment by justinsaccount | Hacker News Reader

FTA:

> “Since its launch in March 2014, 18F has struggled financially,” says GSA’s Office of Inspector General (IG), citing loses every year, now totally over $31.6 million.

And from a random site that seems to agree with a few others:

> In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion

In 3 years 18F has spent 31.6 million. Even if it lost 31.6 million every year, it could do that for NINETEEN THOUSAND YEARS and still not equal what we spent on the military in one year.

Imagine a country where 18f had a budget of 600 billion dollars a year.

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I don't get your point at all, I'd say the US's ability to project force is worth 19,000x a year more to me than what 18F does.

Why is it that 18f lost ~10 million dollars a year, but the military does not lose 600,000 million dollars a year?

Sounds like a double standard to me.

It's about what an organization spent compared to their budget. It sounds like 18F was budgeted $0 since they were expecting to earn back their costs in revenue by charging other agencies for their services. Since they did not fully recoup their costs, they "lost money".

If you budgeted the military $1 trillion and they spent $1.1 trillion, then they would also have lost money.

Because accounting math abhors double counting.

I will take cynicism out of this equation and still disagree. Highlevel the ability to strike & defend the country (not simply project) is hugely important. However, having a technically proficient group building tooling to increase efficiency, speed, transparency and collaboration-- not to mention technical security, is certainly important. So yes, I would like a more efficient government && hope we can leverage technology to improve it.

Is 18F delivering on this? I don't know, but it is conceptually much more important than 1/19000th of military spending.

You mean, imagine another government agency receiving a budget of $600B a year? shudders

If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

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