Outsourcing and Government - Single Point of Failure

With less than 12 shopping days left until Christmas, advertisers have come up with an ingenious way to warn people of potential hazards in our diverse culture. Warning signs like these make using words like “Stand Clear of Door” “Soporte claro de puerta,” “Stand dégagé de la porte,” or “Basamento libero del portello,” unnecessary.

Things like manufacturing bus door mechanisms and safety devices are often outsourced to countries outside the U.S. Some of the companies performing the work do not have the high Quality Control (QC) standards, as products made in the USA.

There are bus doors in major American cities containing carriage bolts that were installed by a team of Albino midgets from the Emerald Forest. You can spot them by their limp eco green color. But if you really can’t tell where the doors on the bus you are riding were manufactured (i.e., the word “China” or “Taiwan” doesn’t appear anywhere near the sandpapered VIN number inside the door gasket), and you are from Illinois, chances are they are refurbished doors from Serbia – single point of failure being Rod Blagojevich.