I wonder if the contracts continue provisions to force companies to do this? Wouldn’t surprise me a bit.
I should have been born in the 1800s.
“I wonder if the contracts continue provisions to force companies to do this?”
A huge portion of each government contract is dedicated to social goals, employing women and minorities, highly compensated blacks (they don’t specify black, but HR at the company in question told me they only count blacks.) They deal with environmental issues that cross the border into insane. In many contracts you not only can’t use standard chromium plated MIL connectors, but you also can’t even deal with a company that uses “polluting” or forbidden processes in ANY of their products, whether you’re buying those products or not.
The $600 toilet seats and $900 hammers are due to the clauses in the contract. They’re not (generally) because the item is overpriced in and of itself. It’s the other requirements not related to toilets or nailing that drive up the price.