Two Death Stars would cost about $419,000,000,000,000,000,000

[sprite75]

That's a lot of dead presidents....

The destruction of both Death Stars by The Rebel Alliance in Star Wars is generally celebrated as a great success (despite the war seemingly continuing on in "The Force Awakens"), but according to a researcher, Professor Zachary Feinstein of Washington University in St. Louis, destroying them would have been catastrophic for the galactic economy and the rebel chances to establish a second republic. You might dismiss this paper as a waste of time, but many Bothans died to bring us this information.

According to the U.S. government, the first Death Star cost $852 quadrillion (thousand million million), 11,000 times the gross world product, which is estimated to be about $77 trillion dollars. But this latest paper, available on ArXiv, estimates that the total cost of building two Death Stars in "A New Hope" and "Return of the Jedi" was $419 quintillion (billion billion) dollars when research and development are also factored in.

To estimate the Gross Galactic Product (GGP), Professor Feinstein compared the development of the first atomic bomb to the development of the Death Star. Based on the cost of the battle stations being 0.21 percent of the total Empire budget, compared to the cost of the Manhattan Project, the estimate for the GGP is $92 sextillion (thousand billion billion) during the 20 years of the Empire.

These costs might seem manageable by the Empire based on their GGP, but it is not the cost that is the major issue. Rather, it is the financial market that was likely heavily invested in the Death Stars (yes, this is going a bit too far now). The construction cost is likely the major outstanding debt of the galactic government (on the assumption that Emperor Palpatine is a fiscally conservative leader), so the banks who have financed the Death Stars will be in trouble after the fall of the Empire, according to Feinstein.

[Skull]

Interesting yet funny... (Though I'm hoping this professor DID NOT used school time to come up with the silly conclusion. On the other hand, I'm not sure why this guy is a professor or if being a professor gives him conditionals for such an absurd conclusion.)

How much did it cost for the star destroyer that crashed into the second death star? How much money was used for the AT-AT attack on the ice planet... Oddly, how a cheap cable was used to knock them down too... Lets not forget the money that's used to hyper speed from one part of the galaxy to the next... Oh, they have Star Destroyers like the USA have Navy Ships.

Oh, somebody better give Darth Vader a refund! How much money was spent on the surveillance equipment and they couldn't see the Millennium Falcon nested on a Star Destroyer (aka Empire Strikes Back).

I do believe the money used to build the two Death Stars was nothing compared to the money that was used throughout the whole series.

And it's not the lost of money that took down the empire... it was Luke asking help from his cyborg father to kill the Emperor. (Sorry if I spoiled the ending of Return of the Jedi)

[Flangepart]

 How much money was spent on the surveillance equipment and they couldn't see the Millennium Falcon nested on a Star Destroyer (aka Empire Strikes Back).
Hey, it's government work...human government work...nuff said.