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Comment by georgeburdell | Hacker News Reader

So I work in manufacturing. On one of our systems, we recently upgraded the fleet to a $10k computer with a 22nm processor running RHEL 7 supplied by the system vendor. We had all of the install files and could have bought a $2k computer and gone through an extended install and qualification process, and closing the door to some support from our vendor, but we didn’t. We paid the extra $8k for a guarantee that it would just work and that we could get the exact same computer for years to come.

I see these high prices for what appear to be commodity items in a similar light. You are paying for a certain amount of comfort that the sling will just work. Amazon is not going to care if the sling, which might be a cheap knock-off, rips apart while you’re walking and unseats your unhealed bone.

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Here's where that analogy falls apart: If your 10K computer fails, your vendor will fix it under the support contract for free. If the hospital-provided sling falls apart and you go back to the hospital, they'll charge you again. In most cases, the product is the same one you can get yourself elsewhere, and it still doesn't come with a guarantee.

While that is absolutely true, there is a level of confidence in knowing that the one from a hospital was sourced from a legitimate supplier and that it likely meets some level of quality control standards, legal standards, and supply chain controls.

But this is more of a criticism of Amazon than anything, as those things would be true for a drugstore as much as it would be for a hospital.

Agree on that - things sourced from Amazon are increasingly likely to be suspect quality these days.

I worked in a newspaper plant. We did everything you just described for all of the same reasons. The system delivered was worse in every way than the one we ended up building for ourselves in the end, didn't work right anyway, and was "supported" by incompetent temps that damaged expensive equipment as they ham-handedly learned their jobs on our dime.

Sometimes its all just a paper facade over simple stuff we can easily do for ourselves with the smallest amount of courage and effort.

I think you missed the point that we need an open pricing system. Sure you are willing to pay $200 for that sling but others might decide differently if they see the price beforehand!

There are things like that in the hospital, sure. For example some surgical tools are glorified versions of construction tools (hammers, chisels, drills) but you are paying a premium for materials (have to be autoclave-able) and QA.

However for a lot of other things though are literally the same product, so it really isn't equivalent. If you are paying more for an individual (regular) Tylenol than you would have regularly paid for a box of them, it's hard to argue "value".

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