B-2 bomber program cost 44.75 billion[1] LHC cost ~7.5 Billion Euro ~9billion USD.[2]
[1] http://www.fas.org/man/gao/nsiad97181.htm
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider#Cost
1: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/29/us-lockheed-fighte...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Reconnaissance_Office...
Or just start building the next version already!
That's because you're seeing it through the lens of our time. Remember, the B-2, and many other programs including the F-22, were devised during the trailing end of the Cold War (edit: that's actually a lie; the call for contracts and other such nonsense that would lead to the B-2 started in the 70s, and the F-22 program had existed in some form since the very early 80s). Whatever your conviction about whether or not such things should exist, government (and their militaries) in particular has a great deal of inertia, both in terms of expenditures and policies. So while both programs were in full swing during the collapse of the USSR, that era is primarily what laid the groundwork for such expenses.
Personally, I'm a fan of both. I love the hardware used in high energy physics. And I love military hardware.
If I were about 15 years younger and lived in a wetter climate, I'd go outside and splash in the mud right now. ;)
From the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsXjI6BhMV8
This is the kind of thing that makes me really wanna ragequit on human nature.
http://www.mca-marines.org/gazette/article/ace-ate-marine-co...