Men who are physically strong are more likely to have right wing political views

[The Ugly]

Absolutely not.  I was being sarcastic.  The left will have you believe that $45 bolts and $1000 toilet seats are the work of evil capitalist while conveniently ignoring that the root of the problem is because the government has the power to bestow these contracts.  My joke was that the corrupt government needed a bigger more corrupt government to keep it in check.  The left live under the delusion that only government can check the power of big business.  They fail to understand that big government is the enabler of big business and monopolies.

If you were a businessman and the government offered you a no-bid contract where you could charge $45 for a bolt that costs you 20c would you not take it?  Of course you would!  You'd be a fool not too.  The government can pay that kind of money because it possesses a monopoly on those contracts and can use force to tax the citizenry to pay for it.

I think socialism for the rich is as reprehensible as socialism for the poor.  The greed of the poor is not morally superior to the greed of the rich...that's where the morality of the 'parties' fail.   They both use the government to exert force, violence and/or the threat of violence to enrich themselves at your hard earned capital.

Both are appalling to be labeled as 'civilized'.

Thanks for clarifying. Good post.

[polychronopolous]

Which would probably not piss me off if Gas was still 99 cents a gallon, but when we spend all that money in those oil rich countries and don't get a good deal on it, it just makes me angry.

Shit should be 10 cents a gallon!

Turn of the 20th century prices for our sacrifices!

[Tapeworm]

Military grade specifications probably require a level of quality control that produces sharply decreasing returns in quality appreciation per dollar spent, but if soldiers were dying due to equipment failure you'd be calling for the blood of the people who made a faulty bolt.

If you think $45 is a lot, go institute and record strict QC measures at every stage of production from metallurgy analysis to cut thread surface finish.  The end product might be only marginally better than what you'd get at the hardware store but collecting the data to present to your client as per their requirement is where the money goes.

The relationship between product cost and product quality isn't linear.  Neither is cost vs quality assurance.  People's dissatisfaction generally comes from thinking that something that costs 50x as much should be 50x as good.  It doesn't work that way.

In hindsight, this post is way less fun than using an extreme pricetag as a jumping off point for a political philippic.  Apologies for not keeping with the spirit of the thread.

[Las Vegas]

In hindsight, this post is way less fun than using an extreme pricetag as a jumping off point for a political philippic.  Apologies for not keeping with the spirit of the thread.

I understand where you're generally coming from w that, but there's no excuse...one way or another, in the design or otherwise, it simply doesn't compute...someone is pulling bullshit witrh these costs

Thinking back, it brings up a memory of about 2.5 TRILLION dollars in "misplaced assets" that the Pentagon announced in 2001

Shit's going on, dude...there ain't no denying

Pentagon is mysterious black hole that rivals even Lobstah!

[Las Vegas]

those trills were announced on sept 10 of that year..someone correct me if i'm wrong about that

[The True Adonis]

Or how about the 400 Billion Dollars given to Cable companies that was to be used for a Universal Fiber Internet for the entire United States and they didn`t do a thing with the money.

[Option D]

The same inflated prices are seen throughout the federal system guys, not just the military.  I worked for the federal government for several years (as a contractor).  Everything we did was 2-3 times as expensive as it could be bid out to outside contractors.  I saw this repeatedly, hit us when we bid a couple things out but then they decided it needed to be done by the government workers.  Federal workers get great pensions, many can retire early and then keep working.  Guess what...that is our tax money supporting them the rest of their lives.  None of us get taxpayer pensions.  Everyone that works hard and provides value deserves a good living but big government is not efficient.

Sounds like an old fashioned racket.

[The True Adonis]

A song a good friend of mine wrote and plays all the time and heavily relevant to this topic.