4 ms·

With 'we' I meant every country that's involved, not just my own country. $60bn is actually surprisingly little for research that could change the future of en

With 'we' I meant every country that's involved, not just my own country. $60bn is actually surprisingly little for research that could change the future of energy production and possibly society as we know it. To put it into context, the Apollo program cost $200bn in today's money and a high speed train between LA and SF is projected to cost $100bn.

namdnay 8y ago
And the war in Iraq $1 trillion :(
- donkeyd 8y ago
  Yup. I purposefully didn't mention it, because it can lead to distracting political discussions, unfortunately.
- dis-sys 8y ago
  $1 trillion is not a lot of money for the US. the Congressional Budget Office estimates that interest spending on US public debt will hit $915 billion in 2028[1]. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-on-a-course-to-spend-more-on-debt-than-defense-1541937600 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-on-a-course-to-spend-more-o...
  - dnadler 8y ago
    That doesn't mean 1 trillion isn't a large amount of money. That means the US spends a trillion dollars servicing it's debt. As it so happens, the US will be spending a lot of money servicing debt.
  - Retric 8y ago
    That’s a very misleading figure as inflation both directly reduces the actual debt payment nessisary, and makes comparisons between spending 2003 – 2011 vs 2028 difficult to compare.
    - abfan1127 8y ago
      except inflation is directly related to the amount of new debt issued, because thats the only source of M1 money supply. If the US Treasury didn't borrow from the Federal Reserve and instead printed its own currency, this would be different.
      - Retric 8y ago
        The FED can create money from thin air when banks fail. So, debt is not the only source of M1 money supply.
  - ryanmercer 8y ago
    1 trillion dollars is 3070 dollars per American citizen. That's like 9% of my annual gross, that's a lot of money.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  Unfortunately, it did change the future, just not in the way its planners thought.

namdnay 8y ago

And the war in Iraq $1 trillion :(

donkeyd 8y ago
Yup. I purposefully didn't mention it, because it can lead to distracting political discussions, unfortunately.
dis-sys 8y ago
$1 trillion is not a lot of money for the US. the Congressional Budget Office estimates that interest spending on US public debt will hit $915 billion in 2028[1]. [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-on-a-course-to-spend-more-on-debt-than-defense-1541937600 https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-on-a-course-to-spend-more-o...
- dnadler 8y ago
  That doesn't mean 1 trillion isn't a large amount of money. That means the US spends a trillion dollars servicing it's debt. As it so happens, the US will be spending a lot of money servicing debt.
- Retric 8y ago
  That’s a very misleading figure as inflation both directly reduces the actual debt payment nessisary, and makes comparisons between spending 2003 – 2011 vs 2028 difficult to compare.
  - abfan1127 8y ago
    except inflation is directly related to the amount of new debt issued, because thats the only source of M1 money supply. If the US Treasury didn't borrow from the Federal Reserve and instead printed its own currency, this would be different.
    - Retric 8y ago
      The FED can create money from thin air when banks fail. So, debt is not the only source of M1 money supply.
- ryanmercer 8y ago
  1 trillion dollars is 3070 dollars per American citizen. That's like 9% of my annual gross, that's a lot of money.
stcredzero 8y ago
Unfortunately, it did change the future, just not in the way its planners thought.