Originally Posted by IronPlant
Well its not all the military's fault that they have to pay so much for goods. Usally the prices they pay are a mixture of insane requirements from the government/higher ups in the military and bad politics.
How it usally works is someone in charge, perhaps a high ranking engineer does something for the first time. They needa part, or a thing, or a vehical. They make a list of requirments they need for it. They then put that out on the market for companies to make bids on it or to come up with solutions to the list of requirements. The military then chooses the cheapest(I think it is cheapest, may be highest) of what is produced.
Who ever wins the deal is usally the only one to suply the part, or thing, or whatever.
One reason the price goes up, has to do with the entire suply and demand thing me and diff where talking about earlier. Typically the military wants something made just for them, and thus there is NO, NONE, 0 public demand for the thing. The military then has to pay for everrything for themselves. So while your hammer that it is 16 inches long and is made of steel cost 5 bucks, their 14.65 inch long hammer made of a polyblend of nutts and bunnys is going to cost 75 bucks, if not a hell of a lot more.
If this isn't bad enough, there are a LOT of bad politics in the production of military goods. It is very typical for those in political office to get things done in such a way to insure that the goods are produced in their state, maybe even by some of their friends. Also, perhaps to make themselves look good, or perhaps due to mandates from the government, there are severial unneaded production jobs in making the product. My dad buys a ton of used military hardware and it is very typical to see something like a washer, to be be rapped in bubble rap, the packing put in a plastic bag, that bag put in a box, that box put in a plastic bag and that bag put inside another box. Each one of these steps being done by someone on the clock.
