WHAT DOES IT ACTUALLY COST
Wintery here, with the feeling of snow at any moment. Scarf and beanie weather has arrived. Let us hope the ski resorts get some.
Now — AUKUS. What does it actually cost us?
We have been told $368 billion. But the potential cost to this country runs a good deal further than the money. It is the direction of the nation that is at stake: what we can build instead, what we tie ourselves to, and what we give up in order to get it.
The memo works through the whole ledger — the headline number, what has already been paid, what is unfunded, and what the same money buys if it is spent here instead.