Did you know how much it costs to clean up, let’s say, an oil spill? Or how much money was lost when the Japan’s stock market crashed after one of the workers made a typo? The world is full of mistakes. Some way-way more expensive than the rest. Millions upon millions of dollars wasted. Just poof… and they’re gone.
So what are some of the costliest mistakes humans ever made? Let’s find out!
Japan’s Stock Market Error – $236 Mil
What happens when you type in a 1 where 610,000 should be? Well, you lose 236 million dollars, because you just sold 610,000 shares for 1 yen. Can you imagine what hell that worker has been through?
Mars Climate Orbiter – $328 Mil
One of the reasons NASA is using the metric system for all the calculations is because the rest of the world uses it as well. But the fate of the Mars Climate Orbiter was doomed from the start, as some of the math was done in imperial units. Which of course caused the orbiter to crash and cost the world $328 million.
The Challenger – $1.7 Billion
In 1986 the entire world witnessed what was supposed to be the first ever space shuttle with civilian teachers on board going into space. Sadly, after only 73 seconds something went horribly wrong and the Challenger exploded in mid air. The even traumatized the entire nation, and cost the US $1.7 billion, but even that amount of money wasn’t enough to make things better for the families of the deceased.
FOX Gives Away The Rights To Star Wars – $27 Billion
Fox cancelled a ton of great shows, mutilated X-Men and the Fantastic Four, but their most stupid decision was to give George Lucas rights to Star Wars and any future sequels. All because someone thought that a story about some Jedi and space stuff would be a total flop. That mistake cost them $27 billion!
Ronald Wayne’s Apple Share – $35 Billion
Not many people know who Ronald Wayne is. He’s the co-founder of Apple who sold his 10% shares for $800. Can you imagine the amount of regret he must have had? Well, he said many times that he doesn’t care, and feels great! He’s either a dirty liar or a person everyone should strive to become.
Alaska – $50.7 Billion
It’s an old story but still doesn’t change the fact that a lot of money was lost. As you may know, the US bought Alaska for measly $7.2 million in 1867. Russia probably thought “why would we need more ice?” Then, years later, they figured it out. The answer was oil. $50.7 billion dollars down the drain.
BP Oil Spill – $60.9 Billion
Officially the damage caused by the 2010 oil spill cannot be quantified, as in there is no real way to evaluate the consequences. The oil rig collapsed, spilling metric tons of black gold and gas into the ocean, killing millions if not billions of animals. 60.9 billion dollars was way too low for this horrible tragedy.
Chornobyl – $235 Billion
Of course, the biggest man-made disaster gets to be in the first spot. The events that occurred in Chornobyl during and after the explosion were shown almost verbatim in the HBO show “Chernobyl”, which you’ve probably seen already, so you know how much time and effort, not to mention human lives, went into cleaning up that disaster. Since it’s not a one-and-done operation, the 235 billion dollars that went into this hell hole are just the beginning.
