> blake murphy > wrote:
>
>> remember the inadequately shielded armored carriers? the crappy body
>> armor? or, if you're old enough, the six-hundred dollar toilet seats and
>> three-hundred dollar hammers?
>>
>> cheating the government is one thing the free market does fairly well.
>>
>> your pal,
>> blake


Cheating? Not always.

Perhaps because the bureaucrats in charge don't know their butts from a
hole in the wall and depend on the CYA effect of masses of test data and
paperwork that really doesn't mean a thing because they don't know
whether their specs are meaningful or what the vendors are really
supposed to supply to meet contract?

A very small part of a military or space mission contract can require
months of repeated design reviews, and qualification testing before
the contract is even issued.

Besides, that toilet seat isn't made of gold, the cost is tied to the
rigid specs. Billions were made on space exploration but it also
created millions of jobs and innovations in many areas of consumer
products, innovations that were not affordable if not government funded.

gloria p
who knows too many engineers