By David Uren*
The upper estimate of $368 billion for Australia’s acquisition of eight nuclear-powered submarines is an impossibly large number. (Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s The Strategist.) Stacked in $100 bills, each 0.14 millimetre thick, the pile would rise to about 500 kilometres. You could build 1,000 40-storey buildings in Sydney, buy every single house and apartment in Adelaide, or make a gift of $40,000 to every household in the country.
