Now, this is an amazing story..

[Diocletian]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/04/09/hawaii.volunteers.repair/index.html

[sinton66]

It is amazing. Imagine, people doing things for themselves!

[bandera7]

that is awesome. Only 8 days...

[OldBison75]

It is just amazing that these people made these repairs to a public roadway in eight days. Just goes to show you that without having to go through two hundred sub-committees and committees, public hearings, and 50 or more government burecrats including strctural, mechanical, and environmental engineers, somthing can get done. It has taken TXDOT 32 days to just replace the little reflectors on the yellow lines of SH6 and SH 90 in Grimes County. And, that's with a subcontracted crew of 8-10 guys and 5 vehicles, probably for a huge dollar amount.

I love the "take the bull by the horns" attitude and believe that the repairs that wer done will probably last twice as long as if the state had gone through their procedures and screwed up for two years.

[jason]

govt will probably come look at it and say it doesnt meet their standards and tear it down....

and them charge them for it and tell them it will be 2 years before they can fix it 'correctly'...

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by jason
govt will probably come look at it and say it doesnt meet their standards and tear it down....

and them charge them for it and tell them it will be 2 years before they can fix it 'correctly'...



And when pot holes develope in 4 months and a little old lady loses control of her vehicle and dies in a flaming wreck will it be these people held accountable or the government?????? We all know the answer!!!!
It's kinda funny how everyone wants government to respond right now when they want it and stay away when they don't. Problem is: half the people want it and half don't!!! But all bitch about it..... Ok! I'm done. Sorry.

[DDBooger]

Originally posted by Farmersfan
And when pot holes develope in 4 months and a little old lady loses control of her vehicle and dies in a flaming wreck will it be these people held accountable or the government?????? We all know the answer!!!!
It's kinda funny how everyone wants government to respond right now when they want it and stay away when they don't. Problem is: half the people want it and half don't!!! But all bitch about it..... Ok! I'm done. Sorry. LOL, once again, you and me are probably miles apart on ideology, but your pragmatic approach is refreshing! :clap:

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by DDBooger
LOL, once again, you and me are probably miles apart on ideology, but your pragmatic approach is refreshing! :clap:


I don't believe it's ideology at all. It's reality. Sure my assertion of half the people wanting one thing and half wanting another is simply a guess to put substance to the statement but the facts are still the facts. Almost all people expect results from their government in all things. The problem is that the expected results vary to such a great extent that normally the general concensus is that government accomplishes very little. Which is far from the truth.
Case in Point: These people did something to help themselves and almost everyone who reads this story attaches the assumption that the government's lack of effort caused it. The truth is that for each one of these unfortunate individuals that were effected by this particular problem there are 100 or 1000 others effected by OTHER problems that the government needs to address. Suppose the government jumped this project ahead of all others to satisfy the media and other bleeding hearts and then we found out they didn't repair a road that led to a nursing home and a orphanage or emergency room for little cuddily poodles? There are only so many dollars available for these projects and just because the media happened to pick up on this one doesn't mean the government didn't do their job........But everyone will pile on anyway!

[DDBooger]

Originally posted by Farmersfan
I don't believe it's ideology at all. It's reality. Sure my assertion of half the people wanting one thing and half wanting another is simply a guess to put substance to the statement but the facts are still the facts. Almost all people expect results from their government in all things. The problem is that the expected results vary to such a great extent that normally the general concensus is that government accomplishes very little. Which is far from the truth.
Case in Point: These people did something to help themselves and almost everyone who reads this story attaches the assumption that the government's lack of effort caused it. The truth is that for each one of these unfortunate individuals that were effected by this particular problem there are 100 or 1000 others effected by OTHER problems that the government needs to address. Suppose the government jumped this project ahead of all others to satisfy the media and other bleeding hearts and then we found out they didn't repair a road that led to a nursing home and a orphanage or emergency room for little cuddily poodles? There are only so many dollars available for these projects and just because the media happened to pick up on this one doesn't mean the government didn't do their job........But everyone will pile on anyway! Agreed! :clap:

[OldBison75]

I don't believe anybody spoke to the money issue as a reason that the government was slow to respond. I said that the burecratic process causes so many delays and so much confusion in the process. My post was more to point out that when you take the politics out of the situation, the actual construction project was very fast and efficient. I dare anybody to say the government is efficient.

[PPHSfan]

Watching the State, County, or City do road work is laughable. It's not a stretch when I say there have been several times I have seen five guys watching one guy work when the Govt. is involved. It's the other way around when private contractors do the work. However, if you need 10 Thousand of your enemy killed with extreme prejudice, or a few pirates sniped into oblivion......Uncle Sam is the way to go baby.

[Farmersfan]

Originally posted by PPHSfan
Watching the State, County, or City do road work is laughable. It's not a stretch when I say there have been several times I have seen five guys watching one guy work when the Govt. is involved. It's the other way around when private contractors do the work. However, if you need 10 Thousand of your enemy killed with extreme prejudice, or a few pirates sniped into oblivion......Uncle Sam is the way to go baby.


A private contractor has to EARN your repeat business and the Government doesn't. The more work a contractor does the more money they take in but the Government takes in the same amount of money regardless of how much work they do. A little examination will show why State or City employees don't work hard if they don't have to. I can speak from experience on this one. The harder you work the more work you get to do. but your pay never changes................You do the math!