Apparently the next-gen LHC replacement will cost on the order of $100 billion. As a society (US, EU, or global), we can certainly 'afford it', but no-one is going to be writing that check anytime soon.
Yet Musk was prepared to spend $42B on the twitter purchase which would almost have been a null-op for the world in comparison to funding basically any kind of venture or experiment with the same amount of money... If only Musk was more interested in the universe's structure :)
>Yet Musk was prepared to spend $42B on the twitter purchase
Musk wasn't donating $42B to Twitter. He raised capital to purchase Twitter with the aim of actually making a return on that money.
A better example is someone like Warren Buffet donating ~$50B dollars to charity instead of building another particle collider. If only Buffet was more interested in the universe's structure eh.
