Re: OT: Canadian Tax Database

On Thu, 2007-03-08 at 09:15 -0500, Ted Byers wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Joshua D. Drake" <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com>
> To: "Richard Huxton" <dev(at)archonet(dot)com>
> Cc: <pgsql-general(at)postgresql(dot)org>
> Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2007 8:00 AM
> Subject: Re: [GENERAL] OT: Canadian Tax Database
>
>
> > Richard Huxton wrote:
> >> http://www.thestar.com/News/article/189175
> >>
> >> "For instance, in some cases the field for the social insurance number
> >> was instead filled in with a birth date."
> >>
> >> Unbelievable. Sixty years of electronic computing, fifty years use in
> >> business and the "professionals" who built the tax system for a wealthy
> >> democratic country didn't use data types.
> >
> > This is Unbelievable? This is commonplace.
> >
> And due at least in part to government (and other institutions operated by
> damned fools) opting for the least expensive provider rather than paying for
> someone who actually knows what they're doing. Just as buying cheap junk
> always comes back to get you, hiring incompetent fools that don't know their
> ass from a hole in the ground will come back to get you too.
>
Come on, they don't hire incompetent fools. The hire the people
they need to fill their quota regardless of how well trained
and experienced they are. I am not saying that non white males
are in any way less competent than white males, but by removing
them from the pool does not make things better. The biggest
problem with quotas is not hiring less qualified staff, it is
that less qualified staff know why they were hired and know that
they are very unlikely to be fired, so they have little incentive
to work hard or attempt to do their best, they can always fail
upwards.

...snip...

--
Guy Fraser
Network Administrator
The Internet Centre
1-888-450-6787
(780)450-6787