Re: The most expensive dick swinging contest in history
Totally wrong! Vietnam easily wins the dick-swinging contest. Here are the numbers to show that, as well as costs of some other well-known large UK projects.
The entire Space Race program from Mercury through Apollo cost a lot less than most people think it did: $28 billion overall, but :
- From 1959 through 1972, NASA's entire budget was just 2.2% of the US Government's annual spend
- The space program only accounted for about half of NASA's budget
By comparison, and after adjusting for inflation:
- The US Interstate highway system cost 376% as much as the full Apollo project. It was built after WW2. Up until then the only reasonably quick way to cross America was by train or, after the mid-30s, to fly - if you had the cash. Construction started in 1956 and was completed in 1992
- Vietnam cost 516% as much as the full Apollo project.
- The F-22 Raptor project cost half as much as the full Apollo project - and I bet the F35 program makes the F-22 cost look like small change.
Apollo Program Cost: An Investment in Space Worth Retrying? has more detail.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
