The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon’s most ambitious weapons program ever, has been plagued with mounting costs and delays that will result in a price tag of more than $2 trillion in the coming decades, according to a recent watchdog report by the Government Accountability Office.
Fun fact: for about a sixth of this price tag, we could permanently end world hunger. You would also have enough money left over to permanently end all currently eradicable diseases worldwide.
Seems like a bargain, going to need a source on that.
WHO say it would cost about 40billion a year to end world hunger.
The disease one sounds a lot more speculative seeing as the diseases need to actually be cured which could be tough and the costs would be uncertain. But I'm sure the mountains of money would expedite the process greatly.
Totally agree with that last statement as someone working in that industry. Would be nice to not only see public labs gain stable funding, but to see publicly-owned infrastructure for bringing treatments from the lab scale to full production too. For medications at least, this would mean we could get rid of the private sector (or at least provide an alternative option) that didn't inflate the costs of treatments and constantly seek IP that kills treatments that are potentially more effective and/or incredibly cheap to produce and provide to those in need.
The private sector provides a necessary service currently, but only because they have ensured that they have a monopoly. Ultimately, they serve as leeches holding the advancement of medical science back.