[michaelt]

Obviously the military doesn't literally do nothing. Many of the people involved work very hard; lots of hard physical work, risk of death etc etc

But the military is uniquely patient when, for example, an already-very-expensive jet fighter ends up 10 years late and 80% over budget. And uniquely able, among government departments, to buy things like Javelin missiles that cost $200,000 a shot. Or to send $12bn in cash into Iraq, as literal pallets and truckloads of banknotes, into Iraq and somehow... lose it all and not be able to account for it. Or to be unable to pass any sort of account audits, as they can't find about 63% of their assets.

What's more, from the perspective of a politician, military spending makes for a great jobs program - because you can reasonably require your suppliers manufacture in America from components sourced in America AND small government types will approve military spending AND you get to look tough and strong.

[abduhl]

Have you heard of Tesla's robotaxi fleet?

What about Google+?

The Apple Vision Pro?

New X-Men movies from Disney?

Perhaps the US military is not so unique after all when it comes to projects that don't pan out.

[mlyle]

Those are all situations where a commercial entity has put private funds at risk.

Most of these defense contracts that have gone way over have left the taxpayer paying for it all. In many cases, the defense contractor ends up better off because of the slip. And even very troubled programs that would have been killed in industry ages ago continue to survive.

This is what he was referring to with "But the military is *uniquely patient* when..." It's not the failure that's the problem.