I saw a story about how Congress has authorized spending to build tanks that the Pentagon does not need or want. This got me wondering what it must feel like for the workers building the tanks. I have had to do a few projects at work that created nothing of value. It made me feel like crud, working hard to produce nothing useful. How do the tank builders deal with the fact that they are basically building expensive scrap metal?
I don’t think your example is as good as you think. It’s pretty clear to you and me those tanks are a waste, but it’s not like the Army is going to dig a hole and bury them out of spite. They probably have persuasive managers trying to tell them the Pentagon is wrong and their tanks are needed. They probably have some pride in their product and even believe in it themselves.
There’s also lots of other motivators to work hard. I started a business immediately out of college and within reason all I cared about was creating valuable products and making money. I cared about keeping my people employed, but that was more a source of anxiety. Now that I work for somebody else I’ve found a whole new type of satisfaction from knowing that apparently the people who employ me feel I’m worth my salary. It’s not quite as fulfilling as knowing your work is inherently useful, but it’s meaningful. When I work on a project I find stupid or beneath me I remind myself I’m getting the same salary I negotiated for and will be on to doing something I do consider useful in the future.
Frankly, there’s a lot of “productive” work/fields/industries that only have value because people believe they do. It’s an artifact of a non-subsistence economy, I guess.
I’ve written a LOT of software that either never saw the light of day, or saw it for a few brief moments and then became obsolete. It does get to me sometimes, to think about all the hours I spent doing it, but really - I spend a lot of time doing stuff that can’t be considered productive, but it does something for me. Watching movies and playing video games aren’t productive, but they’re fun. Writing software that ultimately gets thrown out isn’t productive, but it paid my living expenses. Not all that different IMO.
Some people are detached enough from their work that they aren’t motivated by lofty and abstract goals. What they care about is getting a paycheck at the end of the month, so that they can go home and do whatever they want with it. Whether that be raising a family or building a replica of the Leaning Tower of Pisa out of Wheat Thins. These things give them a sense of purpose. Not what they do between the hours of 9 and 5.
More often than you might think, Congress and/or the Pentagon fund the construction of various vehicles and weapons even though they’re not strictly needed. This is because there is specialized knowledge in building them, and they fund low-level continuing production in the interest of keeping the workers and by extension, the specialized knowledge available for building them and so they can transfer it to new workers.
For example, the Navy is always building a submarine because the skills and knowledge to build submarines is specialized and not readily available in the civilian world, and if they were to mothball the production lines for 5-10 years until the Navy needed new subs, those people with the knowledge would either be working for someone else, retired or dead, and there’s no guarantee they’ll come back and work for Electric Boat or whoever.
The Lima Tank Plant in Ohio works similarly; it’s unlikely you’ll see NO tank production or serious overhauls at Lima.
However, it looks like what the OP is talking about is more of a pork-barrel project- the Pentagon doesn’t need more tanks and there’s enough ongoing production and overhauls that the knowledge isn’t in danger of being lost.
It really gets to me when I do stuff that doesn’t end up being useful, or if it’s used for a short time and done over. However, I don’t necessarily know that the mindset of a guy running a forge to make tank tread segments or a guy welding armor plates together is such that they’re thinking about it in terms of the finished tank- they’re probably thinking more along the lines of “I finished 12 segments today”, or “I finished welding 3 turrets in the last 8 weeks.” On review, it’s pretty much what Monstro is saying.
What you have described is common in the US defense complex-thousands of people who produce nothing but paper (or unneeded products). Think of the 151 army generals with no commands-what do they do all day?
But money has been allocated for these activities, and so it is spent.
part of the reason why we have a $17 trillion national debt.
People often talk about unneeded or unwanted DoD spending, but I have yet to find a good summary of spending that congress has authorized specifically against the wishes of the military.
How about the costly military bases that can never be closed? the army has been trying to close bases for years-many of these were never intended to be permanent (they were built during WWII). yet politicians continue to keep them funded, often through sneaky bill riders.
My brother lives in Weymouth, MA. Near his home is the now closed S. Weymouth Naval air station. we were walking the grounds one day, and walked over to the new control tower ($22 million blown on it). the new control tower was finished just as the base closed. It is now vandalized and falling apart-great use of taxpayer funds!
It’s just a different state of mind. Some people have their priorities in other places. For me, it would be difficult to go to work and have nothing to do, I like the challenge, and the harder it is, the more satisfying. Yet, I’ve met plenty of people who are happy to sit at work and stare at the wall to collect a pay check. So, the question is, what are these people expecting to get out of their job?
Using the example from the OP, it might frustrate me a lot, or I might come up with another way to think about it. Maybe I just really enjoy working with my hands, and that the end product may or may not actually be useful isn’t that important. Like some people like working on cars, maybe that car will be an integral part to a family being able to make it by, get to work, run errands, bring the kids to school. Or maybe that car will go sit on a showroom floor and it just needs to be in working order to increase the value.
Or maybe it’s something a little more abstract than that, just taking pride in doing a good job. Sometimes I know the work I’m doing is going to account for little or nothing, and maybe I don’t even like doing it, but I know that I can still do a good job with it. Or at least know that, even if people arguing about whether they’re really needed or not, they believe that at least if they are needed, they’ll work and they’ll get what they paid for.
Or, like the people I’ve known that I mention, maybe some of those tank builders don’t care at all, and they’re content to just show up, do their job, and get paid. Maybe they have aspirations in another area besides their job, like an artist, or they get fulfillment elsewhere and don’t need that from their job. Or maybe they just don’t really care about anything.
Maybe they just think, “I’m glad I have a job”, and don’t question the utility of the product.
My wife is a lawyer, and she hates this very thing about her job. Her “product” is the almighty billable hour, and it can really get to her some days. We try to do a lot of DIY stuff together, and it’s extremely satisfying.
Tell her that her product is “justice”!
Profit. Next question.
Try to remember that someone writes the jokes in crackers. A person does that. Billable hour, useless tanks, pah!
There, now you can feel good about what you produce again.
It happens in the government sector; there are government employees and contractors who… don’t do anything useful.
Due to potential RL implications, that’s all I’m going to say about it.
More than 350 military bases and installations have been closed under the BRAC program. Politics definitely plays a part, but the fact is the Army has done a good job realigning resources in eh way that Congress has instructed them to.
I was stationed at NAS South Weymouth for two years (seemed like forever). The place was a waste of space long before it was closed. I hope they made them clean up the toxic waste out there. Its biggest problem was that it was located in the Boston area, which has, as far as I could tell, the largest number of rude assholes per capita of any city in the US.