Government waste
The Sunday Times in a report on government waste says:
If the RAF’s top brass were taken aback when Senior Aircraftwoman Stephanie Hulme announced her desire to retrain as a pole dancer, their handlebar moustaches hardly betrayed a quiver. She was flown from her base in Northern Ireland and put up in a London hotel so she could learn the sinuous arts of stripping on a £2,100 course.
“It hadn’t occurred to me that they might pay, but I just filled in the paperwork and sent it in. I was very surprised when it was approved,” said Hulme, now successfully re-employed as an exotic dancer in a Mayfair club where she earns up to £2,000 a night.
How ludicrous. But wait. The course cost £2,100 to the taxpayer. Let's take the Times' estimate of her earnings at face value, and presume she gets £2,000 on one night and £1,000 on another a week, so £150,000 a year. This is £1,003 a week in tax.
Now obviously she probably wouldn't have been unemployed outside the service (though if she was it would enhance this calculation), but even a very good middle class salary of £40,000 a year pays only £158 a week in tax. So the taxpayer is up £845 pounds a week. This pays off the course in just 18 days.
The only question mark then is whether this course was instrumental in getting her this job. The tone of the article seems to imply it was. This is not government waste, this is a fantastic example of state-funded training paying dividends.
posted by Matthew @ 1/16/2006 10:19:00 AM
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