This thing reminds me of the old joke about how government contracting works.
Three contractors are bidding to fix a broken fence at the White House. One is from New York , another is from Tennessee, and the third is from Florida. All three go with a White House official to examine the fence.
The Florida contractor takes out a tape measure and does some measuring, then works some figures with a pencil. "Well..." he says, "I figure the job will run about $900...$400 for materials, $400 for my crew, and $100 profit for me."
The Tennessee contractor also does some measuring and figuring, then says, "I can do this job for $700...$300 for materials, $300 for my crew, and $100 profit for me."
The New York contractor doesn't measure or figure, but leans over to the
White House official and whispers, "$2,700."
The official, incredulous, says, "You didn't even measure like the other guys! How did you come up with such a high figure?"
The New York contractor whispers back, "$1000 for me, $1000 for you, and we hire the guy from Tennessee to fix the fence."
"Done!" replies the government official.
On another note, I was on a composite SCUBA ODA OPCON to NOSC to test the MARS inflatable boats and silent running outboard motors. Half of the boats were kevlar and half were neoprene. However, all were made under govt contract by a firm called West Virginia Rubbercrafters who had never made such a boat prior to this--they normally manufactured inflatable swimming pools, individual floating pool rafts, inflatable pool toys, etc. They got the contract under the rules that a % of all govt contracts had to go to minority, non-competitive, small businesses. We had trouble from the git go with the quality of the boats--e.g., transoms coming off during high-speed OTH transits at 26 kts, problems with the automatic-inflation systems after a Limp Duck or lock-out from a sub--and, although the concept was a good one, recommended they be built by either Zodiac or Avon...even if the cost was a bit higher.
Seems as if some things never
change...no matter how much you
hope!
Richard's $.02
