• Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz
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    21 hours ago

    I recently helped work on a firetruck at a shop that works on existing trucks. They repair/rebuild their bodies, and do a lot of custom work. It’s common for firestations to buy decommissioned trucks from other stations, and have this shop rebuild them rather than buying a new truck.

    The truck I was working on had a light tower on it, with 6 led lights. During the work, one of the employees there asked me how much I thought the individual lights on the tower cost. An equivalently bright LED light would normally cost around $100, but because it was going on a firetruck I guessed it would have a premium price and guessed $300-400. Instead he told me each light was about $1500, making the set of 6 lights worth $9000.

    The whole job was interesting, basically everything they had to buy new was way overpriced compared to the non-firetruck versions of the parts.

    • Etterra@discuss.online
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      20 hours ago

      So manufacturers are milking those juicy government contracts. Isn’t America the fucking best.

      • WhatAmLemmy@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        But capitalism told me that private contracts were the least wasteful and most efficient?

        Why would the people who profit from lying, lie to me?