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From: lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein)
Newsgroups: net.misc
Subject: Re: $1288 ashtrays
Message-ID: <717@vortex.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 23-Jul-85 12:12:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: vortex.717
Posted: Tue Jul 23 12:12:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 25-Jul-85 20:49:23 EDT
References: <6400034@hp-pcd.UUCP>
Organization: Vortex Technology, Los Angeles
Lines: 26

That's a red herring (claiming that they would have cost over $1200 to
build directly).  That second cost estimate was based on having
them made one at a time, by hand, by someone in the local machineshop,
and only points out the wasteful labor cost practices in THAT SHOP.

I saw what that ashtray looks like.  Any high school metalshop student
could throw one together for about $30 in parts, tops.  Add some 
reasonable markup and labor, and you still end up one damn sight less
than $1200+.  If the DoD had put stuff like that out for open bids
(as they supposedly are starting to do now in more cases), we'd have seen
a damn sight less of that sort of gouging.  Some smart little company 
would find a way to build them, complete with labor, for $150 or so.
Even that might be a bit high.

Face it.  The defense contractors have been charging all that the market
can bear, viewing the DoD budget as a bottomless pit into which they
could throw invoices for everything and anything.
It's about time they learn that their gouging will no longer be
tolerated.  Companies that gouge like that on defense-related products
are the nadir of business, and should have their directors hung up
by their thumbs for a few years--ideally in federal prisons where appropriate.

People that gouge, gouge, gouge while waving the flag and proclaiming
their great patriotic spirit are just about the lowest form of life. 

--Lauren--