• AdelleChattre
    +4

    Eighteen trillion here, sixteen trillion there... Pretty soon you start talking about real money.

    • Maternitus
      +4

      You have very good point there, because it sounds and reads like "nothing too much".

      • AdelleChattre
        +7

        Exactly. Work the idea into your sentences until semantic satiation drains it of all conceivable meaning. For instance, “The planned-for, service-lifetime cost over fifty years of the star-crossed F-35 is expected to be $1.8 trillion dollars, before any potential cost over-runs.” See? The money just spends itself after a while like water finding the fastest route to the sea. Try it yourself: "The F-35 requires one-hundred hours of service for every hour of flight time," or "The F-35 is so expensive to operate that we can't afford to train what pilots we can afford to keep, on actual aircraft any more." Nothing to it.