It is a fantasy: an alternative reality where the space race never ended...but I don't think it glosses over the money issue, instead it neatly justifies it by

It is a fantasy: an alternative reality where the space race never ended...but I don't think it glosses over the money issue, instead it neatly justifies it by framing it as an arms race to control ever greater military assets: starting with the lunar operations command war base. The thesis that military, defense contractors and a technological arms race justifies loads of money is not fantasy, but mundane reality: Pentagon budgets, audit failures in the the trillions, right? So I think it's a solid justification, I mean at least relative to the parameters of our own reality. What else are you going to measure it against? You don't thinks so?