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Because "the second most expensive weapons ever built" wasn't clickbaity enough? * The price of the Manhattan Project | Restricted Data || http://blog.nuclears

Because "the second most expensive weapons ever built" wasn't clickbaity enough? * The price of the Manhattan Project | Restricted Data || http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/05/17/the-price-of-the-manhattan-project/ http://blog.nuclearsecrecy.com/2013/05/17/the-price-of-the-m... * The 10 Most Expensive Weapons in the World - 24/7 Wall St. || http://247wallst.com/special-report/2012/01/09/the-10-most-expensive-weapons-in-the-world/3/ http://247wallst.com/special-report/2012/01/09/the-10-most-e... EDIT: Worth mentioning that we aren't done paying for WWII-era weapons. * America's Atomic Time Bomb: Hanford Nuclear Waste Still Poses Serious Risks - SPIEGEL ONLINE || http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/america-s-atomic-time-bomb-hanford-nuclear-waste-still-poses-serious-risks-a-752944.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/america-s-atomic-t...

mark212 10y ago
Agreed. There's a lot of hyperventilating in this article that, gosh, a wealthy country might want to spend a bit of money to build some weapons to defend itself. And then, incredibly, sell them to other rich countries.
- dbg31415 10y ago
  Additional reading: * Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II procurement - Wikipedia || https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_procurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...
- rangibaby 10y ago
  Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
  - WhitneyLand 10y ago
    Come on, Eisenhower was provably wrong. Countless times throughout history people have suffered the worst horrors imaginable because their side was militarily weaker. So much unjust loss as someone wanted more power and took it just because they could. The truth is that military spending, benevolent and power checked leaders, and government at least capable enough to not collapse in on itself are all essential. The hard question is only how to attain these and in the right balance. Too much military spending surely will cause unnecessary suffering, too little has been proven just as capable as ending in ruin.
    - rangibaby 10y ago
      Hi I think the peace dividend showed that Eisenhower's theory had basis in reality. No one reasonable is in favor of abolishing the militaries of powerful nations entirely but disarmament is something that we (as humans) should work towards. Not just for the money it would save, but because it brings nations together. See: START
  - ThrowawayR2 10y ago
    How soon people forget that peace among nations is not the norm. If you think that the indigent are forgotten now, consider what their plight would be if the clouds of war were gathering. "Si vis pacem, para bellum" ("If you desire peace, be prepared for war.") is just as true today as it was in Vegetius' time.
    - duncan_bayne 10y ago
      It is indeed still true, and probably will be forever. We're just saying that the F-35 doesn't seem to be an effective or efficient way of preparing :)
- gech 10y ago
  From that article: "Over the lifetime of the project the US is expected to have spent $1.5 trillion designing, building and maintaining 2500 planes for its own use: enough to forgive the entire nation’s student debts, or pay for the healthcare of every low-income American family for the next three years, or build a border wall that encircles the Earth four times." Waste
mikeash 10y ago
Your first link puts the total cost at about $30 billion in modern money. The F-35 easily surpasses that, even if you don't count the cost of building the individual planes. If you count the cost of production, not just R&D, then the atomic bomb wasn't even the most expensive weapon of WWII. That honor goes to the B-29.
- dbg31415 10y ago
  You changed the outcome by measuring it. =P I read the article wrong, moved a comma over... good catch.
  - mikeash 10y ago
    Maybe you read it right, and got transported to an alternate universe afterwards? I swear this happens to me all the time. Were you reading it as $30 trillion? I could totally see accepting that if you hadn't previously known the true figure.
    - md_ 10y ago
      > Maybe you read it right, and got transported to an alternate universe afterwards? I swear this happens to me all the time. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-berensteain-bears-conspiracy-theory-that-has-convinced-the-internet-there-are-parallel-universes https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-berensteain-bears-con...

mark212 10y ago

Agreed. There's a lot of hyperventilating in this article that, gosh, a wealthy country might want to spend a bit of money to build some weapons to defend itself. And then, incredibly, sell them to other rich countries.

dbg31415 10y ago
Additional reading: * Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II procurement - Wikipedia || https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_procurement https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...
rangibaby 10y ago
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
- WhitneyLand 10y ago
  Come on, Eisenhower was provably wrong. Countless times throughout history people have suffered the worst horrors imaginable because their side was militarily weaker. So much unjust loss as someone wanted more power and took it just because they could. The truth is that military spending, benevolent and power checked leaders, and government at least capable enough to not collapse in on itself are all essential. The hard question is only how to attain these and in the right balance. Too much military spending surely will cause unnecessary suffering, too little has been proven just as capable as ending in ruin.
  - rangibaby 10y ago
    Hi I think the peace dividend showed that Eisenhower's theory had basis in reality. No one reasonable is in favor of abolishing the militaries of powerful nations entirely but disarmament is something that we (as humans) should work towards. Not just for the money it would save, but because it brings nations together. See: START
- ThrowawayR2 10y ago
  How soon people forget that peace among nations is not the norm. If you think that the indigent are forgotten now, consider what their plight would be if the clouds of war were gathering. "Si vis pacem, para bellum" ("If you desire peace, be prepared for war.") is just as true today as it was in Vegetius' time.
  - duncan_bayne 10y ago
    It is indeed still true, and probably will be forever. We're just saying that the F-35 doesn't seem to be an effective or efficient way of preparing :)
gech 10y ago
From that article: "Over the lifetime of the project the US is expected to have spent $1.5 trillion designing, building and maintaining 2500 planes for its own use: enough to forgive the entire nation’s student debts, or pay for the healthcare of every low-income American family for the next three years, or build a border wall that encircles the Earth four times." Waste

mikeash 10y ago

Your first link puts the total cost at about $30 billion in modern money. The F-35 easily surpasses that, even if you don't count the cost of building the individual planes. If you count the cost of production, not just R&D, then the atomic bomb wasn't even the most expensive weapon of WWII. That honor goes to the B-29.

dbg31415 10y ago
You changed the outcome by measuring it. =P I read the article wrong, moved a comma over... good catch.
- mikeash 10y ago
  Maybe you read it right, and got transported to an alternate universe afterwards? I swear this happens to me all the time. Were you reading it as $30 trillion? I could totally see accepting that if you hadn't previously known the true figure.
  - md_ 10y ago
    > Maybe you read it right, and got transported to an alternate universe afterwards? I swear this happens to me all the time. https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-berensteain-bears-conspiracy-theory-that-has-convinced-the-internet-there-are-parallel-universes https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/the-berensteain-bears-con...