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Not directly funded by tax payers… the exceptional tax breaks that oil companies have received from our shat government are astronomical.

I was saying that in the scale of human enterprises, the cost of returning soil from another planet is a rounding error. 9 billion over a decade vs the operating cost of O&G industry as an example, isn't even close. Soil from Mars vs oil from earth.

Both are an amazing scientific and technological accomplishment, but one is also historic.

Maybe parent was hinting at the astronomical numbers and the relative futility of spending this amount on this vs that.