[jpxxx]

The actual value of a government program is a meaningless thing because the calculations you do depend entirely upon what you or your cohort personally value.

The American military's V-22 tilt-rotor "Osprey" helicopter program will cost approximately $36B. A cursory web search will show that it is considered a deathtrap that does not meet most of its design objectives.

So is the value of a program to build suicide machines worth four times more than knowing more about how foundational reality is constructed? Blark, argh, divide by zero. If you get paid to build suicide machines, it's a valuable program. If you get paid to fly a suicide machine, it both is and it isn't. If you are watching someone who is flying a suicide machine die, it probably isn't. If you like science more than you like watching people die, no. If you like watching people die more than you like science, yes. On and on and over and over in limitless permutations multiplied by every taxpayer.

All you can say with certainty is that someone or some party in the course of a government process valued that process at some point enough to make it happen.

[protomyth]

I would bet "knowing more about how foundational reality is constructed" is probably worth less to a lot of people than say research into the top 10 cause of death by disease.

I'm glad they chose to fund this, but my original point is that no government funding these days should survive unless it can be justified. We cannot keep running deficits.

Your "cursory web search" might want to include actual statistics on accidents particularly compared to the CH-46 it is replacing.

[jpxxx]

My example was pure hyperbole. :) But I think my point stands: any government program can be justified by some party, deficit or not. Even deficit spending itself is a virtue for some.

There is no test to separate pork from fiber where there is no fundamental accountability. Spending programs exist because spending programs exist.

[protomyth]

I figured :), but I love reading about aircraft and hate Wired's reporting on anything involving risk or the military.

At this point, if it doesn't keep the lights on, the trains running, or protect / save lives; it needs to be looked at for cutting.

[bcbrown]

Are you suggesting that research into the top 10 causes of death isn't a lot more than the $9 billion spent on the equipment needed to discover the Higgs?

The NIH gets $30B/yr[1]. I don't know where the $9B figure for the LHC came from, but I bet it's total cost, over what, 10-15 years?

[1]http://nih.gov/about/almanac/appropriations/part2.htm

[protomyth]

Nope, not saying that at all, I was saying that an additional $9 billion on the top 10 might have been prioritized higher. Once again, I am glad they funded the LHC, but my thesis is that government spending needs to be cut to the bone until the deficit and unpaid liabilities are dealt with. Much like we cut spending after WWII.