Agreed, and to expand i would say that the level of capital devoted to a task is how much it actually needs to be done. Cheap, basic supplies are for tasks which are really not important and if they were, they could be done by people other than military personnel more cheaply. A few token mops just shows that you need something to give the E-2s or their morale goes in the shitter. Mission-essential bases have janitorial contractors.
I’m not sure it would be better to use people maximally efficiently once they’re hired! That is an interesting question. Personally i would rather have them idle and available to be tasked with important missions that may come up than ‘busy’ all the time for the sake of busyness, which is how ‘use people maximally efficiently because we have them’ tend to play out.
Agreed, and to expand i would say that the level of capital devoted to a task is how much it actually needs to be done. Cheap, basic supplies are for tasks which are really not important and if they were, they could be done by people other than military personnel more cheaply. A few token mops just shows that you need something to give the E-2s or their morale goes in the shitter. Mission-essential bases have janitorial contractors.
I’m not sure it would be better to use people maximally efficiently once they’re hired! That is an interesting question. Personally i would rather have them idle and available to be tasked with important missions that may come up than ‘busy’ all the time for the sake of busyness, which is how ‘use people maximally efficiently because we have them’ tend to play out.
Availability for tasks is a valuable task, but it needs subtle thinking to evaluate (option pricing for one).
The difference between efficient and effective is relevant here.
If there are no useful things (“important missions”) for people to do, filling their time with busywork might be efficient but is hardly effective.