I've found in my time in public life that there are certain things that the public sector does well - generally better and many times cheaper than their private counterparts.  The converse is also true.  There are simply some tasks that the private sector can perform generally more efficiently and cheaper than our state and local governments.

Although this is an age-old discussion and debate, the recent scrum between the Facilities Maintenance Department and the Fire Department over rug cleaning at the Fire Headquarters has rekindled the debate in my squash.  According to the story in Tuesday's paper, our facilities maintenance department was disturbed that the fire department paid to have the rugs cleaned, a task they felt the right to perform.  Problem is, the firefighters believed that a private contractor would do a better job, and committed the dirty (or clean) deed.  This precipitated a turf (or rug) battle over the $5,000 bill.  From CapeCodToday.com.