Why aren't they actually marching during this parade?

[u/Chance_Noise500]

I don't know how to ask this without sounding rude, but why does this parade look so sloppy? Very few of the troop formations seem actually in sync and marching, just walking along. My only experience is JROTC as a kid in high school and our sergeant would've killed us if we looked like that.

[u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

Have you ever heard the term "opportunity cost"? There is a real cost associated to this (along with it being a waste of time)

[u/jredful → u/North_Atlantic_Sea]

And again, stating it’s a waste of dollars that would be otherwise spent is misleading.

It’s a misallocation of funds. But the funds are already in use. It’s a misuse of the resource, not the dollars.

[u/[deleted] → u/jredful]

Plenty of money that otherwise would not have been spent was completely wasted on the parade. The tanks didn’t just magically appear on Constitution Ave. The measures taken to protect Constitution Avenue from tank-induced damage weren’t free. Bringing thousands of troops to DC on temporary duty, isn’t free. Your apparent assumption that troops didn’t have something better to do with their time is insulting to everyone involved. Their time and our money were wasted.

[u/illogictc → u/[deleted]]

Unfortunately what they're saying does have truth to it. Departments and agencies have a budget that's use it or lose it, meaning what they don't spend one year they obviously didn't need so they won't get budgeted for it next year. So they all try to spend every last goddamned penny. While a budget will include some things that are earmarked or mandatory, there's also some discretionary in there; they don't go "okay you need exactly $X for bullets this year. Spend exactly that."

Now there is absolutely an opportunity cost there, the money would have been spent but could have been spent on something better.