Somewhere on the internet, Twitter I think, I now see that the official sources give lower figures. Also, most probably according to those figures the war in Afghanistan also didn't cost more than a few hundred million.
What "other problems"? I hate it when people do that, i.e. saying stuff like "you're generally wrong, but I won't say exactly what, because you're so very wrong". Just say what you specifically say you see as wrong or don't say it at all (to be clear, this is not directed particularly at you).
- Whether intentional or not, you imply the entire budget for the F22 program was dedicated to shooting down a single weather balloon.
- Your source for the budget comes from Twitter, and you state without evidence that your sources are probably more accurate than official ones.
- Your posts mock military spending without engaging in the difficult political science questions of what may happen if your suggestions had been implemented. Something as large as defunding air force development has a scope far beyond the question of one weather balloon, and your discussions appears to lack awareness of that scope and complexity.
In short, many of the problems center around twitter-sized sound bytes being played in a venue that prefers well-constructed arguments and well-rounded discussion.
> you're generally wrong, but I won't say exactly what, because you're so very wrong
It's normally actually "there are a number of things wrong here but I don't have the time/energy/motivation to go into them".
That information can still be useful and isn't always just consensus building (which is admittedly a widespread problem).
On an unrelated note, you might want to recheck this: Also, most probably according to those figures the war in Afghanistan also didn't cost more than a few hundred million.
I also suspect the majority of commentators consider your epistemology to be completely broken and fixing that is a time investment far beyond what they can commit to. On the remote chance you'd actually interested in fixing it, the Less Wrong one (Sequences) might be very flawed, but HN will agree its better than what you've currently got.
Twitter is just wrong. The total for the entire program, including 40 years of maintance, is estimated to be around $133 billion (in constant dollars from a few years ago). The amount spent so far is under $100 billion.
What "other problems"? I hate it when people do that, i.e. saying stuff like "you're generally wrong, but I won't say exactly what, because you're so very wrong". Just say what you specifically say you see as wrong or don't say it at all (to be clear, this is not directed particularly at you).