Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.3 alpha 4/15/85; site amdcad.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!gatech!amdcad!phil From: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) Newsgroups: net.misc Subject: Re: $1288 ashtrays Message-ID: <2608@amdcad.UUCP> Date: Mon, 12-Aug-85 13:03:11 EDT Article-I.D.: amdcad.2608 Posted: Mon Aug 12 13:03:11 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 00:16:58 EDT References: <6400034@hp-pcd.UUCP> <717@vortex.UUCP> Reply-To: phil@amdcad.UUCP (Phil Ngai) Organization: AMD, Sunnyvale, California Lines: 27 In article <717@vortex.UUCP> lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) writes: >I saw what that ashtray looks like. Any high school metalshop student >could throw one together for about $30 in parts, tops. Recently there was a lot of noise in the popular press about how the Air Force was paying $7200 for coffee pots on airplanes. These responsible journalists somehow failed to uncover or report the fact that Delta Airlines, buying from a commercial vendor like Lockheed, pays around $4000 for an item with similar functionality. Having seen a small part of the mountains of paperwork the government needs to buy anything, I think the markup from $4000 to $7200 is easily explained, if not surprisingly low. We all know what coffee pots cost at K-mart and probably Lauren's metalshop could put one together for $50. But I must conclude that coffee pots on airplanes are much more complicated than the kind that K-mart sells and that's why they cost so much more. We don't need to invoke bottomless greed to explain it. Even if we think our government is blind to ripoffs, Delta Airlines can not survive without keeping tight controls on costs. Yet they too pay outrageous prices for coffee pots. -- Yuck! This coke tastes different! Phil Ngai (408) 749-5720 UUCP: {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,allegra}!amdcad!phil ARPA: amdcad!phil@decwrl.ARPA