The US Air Force Spent $326,000 Replacing Broken Coffee Cups in the Last 2 Years | Hacker News Reader

The US Air Force Spent $326,000 Replacing Broken Coffee Cups in the Last 2 Years

munchies.vice.com

32 pointshalestock12 comments

Summary (because it'll take a few paragraphs to get past the faux outrage): they are FAA-certified cups that plug into cabin systems, hence the price.

Still, for $1200 a pop, one would think they'd be more durable.

ObWestWing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM

I think I need to watch this show.

But I can totally get behind the thought pattern of making things that shatter gently into big, dull shards. There's so much thought that goes into these little things.

Although why does a sub need an ashtray. It's not like there should be cigarettes on it.

Smoking on subs was only banned at the end of 2010.

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/US/04/09/navy.smoking.subs/index...

Apparently there were "smoking rooms" on (at least some) subs.

https://tobaccocontrol.bmj.com/content/14/4/221.1

Oh I see they are FAA certified, hmm still outraged no jealous, someone is lining their pockets with profits from a 1200 per cup.

It takes $1998 to check a box on a form saying "certified".

I can't look at that square handle and not think "that was by design", also.. it seems obvious that it was designed to break at that point if it fell..

https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/styles/inline_...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_budget

“The black budget can be complicated to calculate, but in the United States it has been estimated to be over US$50 billion a year – a greater figure than current United States expenditure for education.”

Imagine cutting the black budget in half and more than doubling the education budget with that money. Suddenly free community college for all is doable. And you still have 25B for your hidden activities!

Medicare is $702bln/yr or $12,300 per recipient. Canada spends $3,000USD per capita and provides healthcare to everyone.

Think of what we could do with the $526.5bln that would be saved if US healthcare costs were brought back inline with other advanced economies.

The reason these things are crazy expensive is that the spec for the cups is written by the same government that writes the form you use to do your taxes.

The government is not smart enough to have a housing dollar pot that locks in place and then use cheap cups.

Dumb.

And there I thought Yeti cups were expensive!!!

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