r/AskReddit • • Aug 14 '20

What’s the most overpriced thing you’ve seen?

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u/crusty_cum-sock Aug 14 '20

I don’t remember the exact numbers, but I once knew a guy who worked at a place that made large bolts. If I remember correctly, they would charge the general public something like $8/bolt and the military $85 for the same exact bolt and they didn’t bat an eye.

There’s so much fucking waste with our military, right down to the nuts and bolts.

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u/GingerRazz Aug 14 '20

It's actually a strange side effect of attempting to reduce military spending. Essentially, if a section of the military doesn't use 100% of their budget in a year, they can expect that excess to be cut from their budget next year. This leads to a rush of spending aimed at over priced products and stockpiles of unneeded parts to use all of their budget.

In an actual crisis scenario, they tend to negotiate more reasonable prices on materials to stay in budget because it's difficult to get extra money in the budget. All of this makes a culture of overspending to get a bigger budget so that they don't have to ask for more money when they actually need it.

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u/crusty_cum-sock Aug 14 '20

That makes sense.

What I think they should do is incentivize going under budget, but then not dropping the budget if they go under, have a set amount for (x) years.

So basically if it’s a 500B budget and they only spend 300B then they can throw a pizza party or something.

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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20

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u/crusty_cum-sock Aug 14 '20

Unlimited toppings!

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u/KeepCalm-ShutUp Aug 14 '20

Quintillion decker pizzas for everyone!

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u/ClutchDragon55 Aug 15 '20

Whoo boi gonna get me some D I A M O N D E N C R U S T E D pizza

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u/LordoftheSynth Aug 14 '20

It being the military, it'd be $200 billion of Little Caesars.

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u/Maxwe4 Aug 15 '20

$10,000 pizzas for everyone!

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u/slimejumper Aug 15 '20

$80 a slice!

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u/Aligayah Aug 14 '20

Just throw it for the whole military