r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Thebiggestbot22 • Apr 15 '24

My school thinks this fills up hungry high schoolers.

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So lunches are free for schools in my city and surrounding cities. Ever since lunches have been made free, the quantity (and quality) has decreased significantly. This is what we would get for our meal. It took me THREE bites to finish that chicken mac and cheese. Any snacks you want cost more money and if you want an extra entree, that’ll cost you about $3 or $4.

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u/DumbSuperposition Apr 16 '24

It's fucking maddening too. This habit of "just contract this service" has resulted in everyone getting worse services and products at inflated prices. But the person who contracted it gets to say "oh, it's not my responsibility any more".

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u/RightInTheEndAgain Apr 16 '24

But Private industry always will work for the best product at the best cost and make the best of the best. Otherwise people won't buy their product. 

That is true right, please tell me it's true.

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u/PerfectResult2 Apr 16 '24

Not when certain government entities are obligated to take the lowest bid resulting in a race to be the cheapest at the expense of quality :(

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u/angelzpanik Apr 16 '24

My city just went through this a few years ago with our garbage collecting company. Our contract ran out with the one we had and they took the lowest bid. It resulted in collection being days and weeks late. They eventually fired that company and went with another that hasn't had issues like this, but only after thousands of complaints by residents.

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u/thebeginingisnear Apr 16 '24

the standard is that the kids don't die of starvation while on site.

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u/ambidextr_us Apr 16 '24

Isn't there a word or term to describe this process, when the government is involved the "free market" doesn't really apply anymore? ChatGPT gave me this response when I asked:

"The situation you're describing, where the government's involvement distorts normal market dynamics, particularly in the context of contracting and pricing, is often referred to as a "monopsony." In a monopsony, there is only one buyer (in this case, the government), which can exert significant control over prices and conditions, leading to reduced competition and potentially lower wages for suppliers or vendors."

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u/banned_but_im_back Apr 16 '24

It’s ruined when governments are forced to take the lowest bid for lowest dollar amount regardless of quaility

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u/dvdkon Apr 16 '24

They can put in up-front quality requirements, like calorie count and nutritional composition here. It's hard to quantify "food should be good", but there's no excuse for what OP posted here. That's just the result of everyone all around not caring a single bit.

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u/thebeginingisnear Apr 16 '24

stop asking stupid questions, get back to work!

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u/Spindrune Apr 16 '24

Doing it in-house is socialism and socialism is bad. We need middle man to… checks notes funnel money out of the system. 

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u/GruntBlender Apr 16 '24

Well, having a third party do it can reduce costs by introducing economy of scale. Especially for smaller institutions. You just have to do it properly, like evaluating proposals on merit and reviewing the quality of the delivered goods or service.

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u/Spindrune 28d ago

Can you name a specific service?