I was curious if such companies or roles exist where you are rewarded for the virtues of delayed gratification, thrift, true value analysis, and accumulation of lots of surplus cash? Off the top of my head I can't really think of any, and the worst offender by far has to be the government.
I remember in the reserves literally looking for things to spend money on at the end of the year, things we didn't even need, but might need at some point in the future, with zero regard to whether the price we paid was a screaming deal or not, *purely* to use up money in the budget. Reason being if we didn't our budget would get slashed next year. I've heard anecdotal evidence that this happens across the spectrum of gov't depts.
Even on the larger scale, gov't run deficit after deficit, billions (or trillions) in debt, and the public almost demands it, "If you have a surplus, spend it". But then, why should the government, elected by and represented by the people have their financial affairs so much different than the people who put them there?
Big companies almost as bad. I was in Ottawa for work Canada 150 day weekend, and coworkers had to fly across the country. This was at a cost of something like $6000 per ticket, in business class, as that's all that was available. Not even a modicum of cost/benefit analysis was done, and an attitude of "this is what we need, and if this is what it costs so be it" prevails. And after all "It's not my money".
When I got my first grown up job I foolishly thought that by selling off most of my big things, packing it in my car, and driving across country resulting a a much cheaper relocation at $3k for mileage and a few hotels vs the family of 4 who hired movers, a truck, and airline tickets at a cost of $25k would somehow be rewarded down the line. No one noticed or cared. The HR drone who oversaw it probably just thought "It costs what it costs" and "it's not my money".
Similarly when I later got transferred out of the country opting to store my meager goods at my parents house vs paying for storage that they would have reimbursed. Not only was there no benefit, it actually bit me in the ass as since they had no record of me having anything in storage, so it was a fight to get those goods out to my new assignment location when I returned to Canada.
Are there companies or organizations out there where thrift and saving is the name of the game? Where people who honestly step back and look at the big picture and say "what's the best for the whole organization", and such decisions get rewarded, vs "take as much as you can of what benefits you" that gets met with a shoulder shrug.