←back to thread

Boeing overcharged the U.S. Air Force 8,000% above market for soap dispensers

(www.reuters.com)
152 points lr0 | 4 comments | 21 Nov 24 04:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.805s | source
Show context
cebert ◴[21 Nov 24 04:33 UTC] No.42201147[source]▶
> “The Air Force needs to establish and implement more effective internal controls to help prevent overpaying for spare parts for the remainder of this contract, which continues through 2031,” said Inspector General Robert Storch.

I wonder if these egregious examples of expenses are due to lack of controls or intentional corruption.

replies(3): >>42201543 #>>42201603 #>>42201703 #
nathanaldensr ◴[21 Nov 24 06:00 UTC] No.42201543[source]▶
"I'm shocked--shocked!--that grift is occurring in this establishment!"
replies(1): >>42201554 #
Sniffnoy ◴[21 Nov 24 06:02 UTC] No.42201554[source]▶
I have to point out here, I think the word you're looking for is "graft".
replies(2): >>42201582 #>>42201589 #
o11c ◴[21 Nov 24 06:09 UTC] No.42201589[source]▶
Both potentially apply, but it can be hard to prove which:

  graft = obtain illegally by bribery
  grift = obtain illegally by trickery
replies(1): >>42201643 #
1. Sniffnoy ◴[21 Nov 24 06:21 UTC] No.42201643[source]▶
Well the thing to note here is that "grift" is a count noun. (Their definitions as verbs is not what's relevant here!) You can't say "grift is occurring here"; you can say "a grift is occuring here". Meanwhile, "graft", in the sense of the abuse of an office for personal gain, is a mass noun. Perhaps the commenter's mistake was leaving out an article rather than using the wrong word? The latter seems more likely to me, however.
replies(1): >>42201940 #
2. miles ◴[21 Nov 24 07:25 UTC] No.42201940[source]▶
> You can't say "grift is occurring here"

Sure you can; "grift" can be used as an abstract noun, much like "crime", e.g., "Crime is occurring here" vs. "A crime is occurring here".

replies(1): >>42207328 #
3. Sniffnoy ◴[21 Nov 24 18:47 UTC] No.42207328[source]▶
The term you're looking for here is "mass noun" or "uncountable noun", and... well I was going to say "no, it can't", but searching does turn up some uses, so, uh, I guess people are saying that now and I was wrong? It must be pretty new; I'm not seeing it in dictionaries.

(Note that just because "crime" can be used as both a count noun and a mass noun doesn't mean "grift" can be! Most nouns are just one or the other, not both. Like Wiktionary has "crime" as both but "grift" as count only. But it seems like this new uncountable sense of "grift" is out there now, so people will have to update the dictionaries...)

replies(1): >>42209312 #
4. Sniffnoy ◴[21 Nov 24 22:23 UTC] No.42209312{3}[source]▶
Additional note: I'd still bet that the commenter was conflating the two words, however.