More on Flight 370

Kelly Tunney has a Slate article about counting the cost of the unthinkable:

CBS News/Associated Press:
The US bill alone has run into the millions of dollars, and some countries such as China have devoted more ships and planes to the effort than the Americans have. Australia is spending more than half a million dollars a day on just one of the ships it has in the Indian Ocean. But governments and military experts say it's difficult to come up with a full estimate for an on-going search, especially since many of the costs are a normal part of maintaining effective search-and-rescue capabilities. The US Department of Defense allocated four million dollars to help search for the missing Malaysian jetliner. Between 8 March and 24 March 2014, it had spent just over three million, said spokesman Colonel Steve Warren. As of late last week it had spent another $148,000. The Pentagon has allocated another four million dollars to cover the cost of a towed pinger locator, used to detect underwater signals from aircraft black boxes, and an underwater autonomous vehicle, which can look for wreckage deep below the ocean surface.

More from CBS/AP:
Malaysia has repeatedly declined to answer questions about the cost of the search. Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein has said the cost is immaterial, and the focus is to find the plane and provide closure for the families of the 239 people aboard. Australia's defense department said its direct cost of using its ship, HMAS Success, in the search is about $550,000 per day, and another vessel, HMAS Toowoomba, costs about $380,000 per day. But it said there are also indirect costs such as general administration, building costs, and depreciation of aircraft assets, so it is difficult to provide an exact total. Several Chinese ships and planes have been involved in the search, but China's foreign ministry did not respond to questions about the expense of the effort.

Rico says you either suck it up and spend whatever it takes, or you tell the families that the answer isn't worth the money, and then run like hell...