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What is stopping somebody who'd be inclined to take a COBOL job from just starting a contract firm and taking the $300k from the government? Does the government check if they actually have employees who have 30 years of COBOL experience before handing out those contracts?

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There’s a lot of compliance work involved in getting government contracts.

Also, there’s usually 2-3 layers of pimps (prime and subcontractors) who take a vig at each layer. Total comp for the contractor is usually rate divided by 3 or 4.

Nothing is stopping them; this is exactly what people do.

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