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I’m still crossing my fingers half our budget for this plane was diverted to secret research - perhaps into something rather tic-tac shaped… was the blackbird a
by jazzyjackson 5y ago
I’m still crossing my fingers half our budget for this plane was diverted to secret research - perhaps into something rather tic-tac shaped… was the blackbird and nighthawk development reported in the open like the F35? or were they developed within black budgets diverted from other, apparently wasteful projects?
disclaimer: I get all my info from “Independence Day”
- devoutsalsa 5y agoYou don't think they actually spend 20K on a hammer, 30K on a toilet seat, or 1.7 trillion on a fighter jet program, do you?
- mhh__ 5y agoIs it not 1.7T over it's whole lifetime? As far as I'm aware it is.
- devoutsalsa 5y agoYeah, it is. Hence "fighter jet program". Why use the cost of just one jet when you can use the cost of the entire program? Never ruin a "good" joke by being moderate.
- andbberger 5y agotoo bad we don't get any special access trains when we spend billions more than the rest of the world on transit projects.
- chrisjc 5y agoNot discount your assertion, but wasn't the $20K cost of the hammer due to the material it was made from? Something about having to work in a spark free environment?
- Symmetry 5y agoThe hammer and the documentation associated with proving that they weren't spending excess money on the hammer and providing a chain of responsibility if that hammer breaks. Plus cost-plus contracting encourages companies to find clever ways to spend more money on everything since their profits are a fixed percentage of their costs. Seriously, yes it is actually that screwed up, that money is going into salaries for stupid makework and profits rather than black budgets.
- hnbear 5y ago$400 ashtray: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R9kH_HOUXM
- navaati 5y agoCareful what you whish for, nowadays a kind of secret research project is "how to spy and control your population"...
- alphabettsy 5y agoYep, cause that never happened before. /s
- nonameiguess 5y agoSecret research doesn't need to be diverted from bloated budgets of open programs. Classified programs are just a line item in appropriations bills with a code name and no explanation of what it's for. Small oversight committees, rather than all of Congress and anyone with working Internet who can download the public budget, get to the see the budget details. The only reason to do something like you're suggesting is if you're trying to hide from the oversight committees, and the only reason to do that is if you're trying to do something illegal. In practice, historically when the US government wanted to do things that are illegal, think Iran Contra, they just relied on private funding to bypass Congress, not stealing from other line items. Or they just lied (e.g. sending troops into Cambodia but not admitting it).
- jazzyjackson 5y agothanks for a real answer, I was genuinely curious how black budgets work :)