I grew up in a rural area. I remember clearly our high school teacher talking about some government boondoggle and he walked us through a black board calculati

I grew up in a rural area. I remember clearly our high school teacher talking about some government boondoggle and he walked us through a black board calculation that showed that it wasted more money than the entire worth of all the homes and farms in the dozen or so towns and villages our high school drew from. The mithril coat was beautiful, rare, made of the most valuable metal in existence and, essentially, magical. Thought it was a good comparison.