Long-term planning (an unfortunate lack, thereof)

>>>>>What % of the money must be spent in Hypothetica?>>>>>

The answer to this depends very much upon which type of economy
Hypothetica is. If hypothetica is the US, then it is reasonable to assume
that 95% of the required hardware would be manufactured within Hypothetica.
If we are talking about Germany, UK or France, that figure is likely to
fall to around 70-80%. For a much smaller economy, like Sweden or the
Netherlands, only a small proportion of the required hardware could be
produced within the borders of the nation. In these cases, the governments
would have no choice but to outsource. The Big boys in Europe Are Germany,
UK, France, Italy and Spain, in that order. Germany or the UK are
certainly the richest two nations within Europe, the third and fourth
richest economies in the world, respectively. The space program could
theoretically be self-contained within either of these nations. This would
appear to be more desirable as it would help to prevent a jealous
competitor from shutting you down, or steering you away from the goal. On
the other side of things, although you may create more jobs for your own
people this way, it is less cost effective.

It is worth mentioning, that even the US Apollo project was not a zero
sum game. The US economy grew at a rate of some 4-5% per year, during the
Apollo era. Giant, visionary space programs that inspire millions of
people, certainly can do wonders for an economy. In terms of economic
growth for the country, the O'Neill concept would function like Apollo on
speed. We should also consider that for a smaller economy, the effect would
be much more concentrated. Unlike Apollo, the O'Neill concept is also
specifically designed to produce an economic return. For a nation like
Germany or the UK, the economy would probably skyrocket. Eventually, the
true value of the project would be realised by other nations. As it became
clear that Hypothetica was about to emerge as the dominant space faring
nation, private investment would drive the economy forward at an enormous
rate. Combine this with the enormous revenues that the country would later
earn by cornering the communications and power industry, along with
construction of space hotels, missile defence shields, etc. and you find
that hypothetica gets very rich, very fast. Why didn't any of the European
nations think of this?

Tony