The impact of competition was extensively questioned and researched with respect to U.S. Government contracting rules in the early '80s. This led to the Competition in Contracting Act of 1984. Since then there's been the routine grumble about the lowest quality bidder and the periodic scandal involving a no-bid contract but no serious question about whether competition reduces cost and improves options. Unless the data starts to suggest otherwise, it's basically a settled matter.
And that, of course, is that the government doesn't have to care about profit and loss nor quality of workmanship. If they don't like it, they just throw more money at it. A private entity, on the other hand, may cease to be a going concern if they don't weigh carefully who does work for them and how it is done. They also learn very quickly that lowest cost is not necessarily lowest cost because of the problem of compensating for shoddy work. Government doesn't have to learn this lesson, especially when palms are getting greased and spoils are being distributed. -Wayne --- Wayne Bouchard web@typo.org Network Dude http://www.typo.org/~web/