Has the US gone communist yet? It's hard to tell.

[wacki]

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Heck, even the Borgata cost $1 billion just to erect, and that's a casino!

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Not relevant. Not novel. And sure as hell didn't take decades to build.



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pharmaceutical companies invest upwards of $40 billion before a dime is returned on it

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Can you show me a drug that took $40 billion? The average is "Discovering and bringing one new drug to the public typically costs a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company nearly $900 million and takes an average of 10 to 12 years."

http://www.ppdi.com/corporate/faq/ab...pment/home.htm

Keep in mind most of those 12 years are clinical trials and not "discovery". There is a huge difference. The longer the discovery cycle the bigger the risk. Drugs also have the convenience of patents being applied immediatly after discovery is finished and not before. This is not true of projects like fusion where multiple patents will be filed during a couple of decades of research.