You say that, but it's going to be made out of gold!

--

"I love it! The look of it! The smell of it! The taste of it! The texture! I love gold so much I lost my genitalia in an unfortunate smelting accident!"

> Star Wars missile defense project in the 80s which was impossible to fund.

You mean, it was impossible to fund until the achievement of tangible results, multiple projects were funded under that umbrella and many got rich from it, if you ask them, they'd say it was worth it.

Similarly, the people who advocate for this project are among those who'd gain from it, not among those who'd pay for it. Without that crucial difference, their story would be very different.

SDI was very destabilizing as well. You are basically announcing that at a future date you will hold all the nuclear cards. So there's some rationale to any adversary launching on you today, before you complete the program; at which point you could club them over the head while they can't fight back.