What's being overlooked in that number is that the money doesn't just disappear, it's going towards production of better electronics and sensors, funding resear

What's being overlooked in that number is that the money doesn't just disappear, it's going towards production of better electronics and sensors, funding research labs and universities, feeding back into other fields. Plus, it pays for researchers and PhDs who also contribute back to the system, often working on tangetially related projects in the process (eg the internet being a result of a need to better share data from CERN to researchers). The question to be asked should be if all that is comparable to the investment, which I think it is.