It’s only money

At a recent get-together, over a few drinks, a group of retired physics teachers discussed their time teaching and told a few tall tales, although one example surpassed all of the others.

The education department had provided extra funding for science equipment, and asked science teachers to submit their wish list. One teacher finished their list with ‘a Cyclotran,’ a very useful device for doing complex scientific investigations. It’s difficult to get an exact price for a cyclotron, as none are listed on ebay at the moment. A quick google check suggests that they cost about $6 million for a small one.

He was eventually contacted by a very senior education officer and was told, ‘You’re not getting a Cyclotron, but you might be amused to know that this has gone through six levels of checks and nobody has questioned it.

With proper checks, and an emphasis on value for money, surely no government would spend so much money without checking everything. This is not a story of Nasa spending $100 for a pencil — almost certainly not a true story, but maybe?

There are some current examples of apparently wasteful government spending. The Trump Mexico wall will probably cost at least $25 billion at the latest estimation. It has been suggested that the UK Brexit will cost them about $100 billion a year.

Australia is spending at least $50 billion