Why Governments Still Pay for Things That Never Get Built

Every year, governments around the world appropriate billions of dollars for projects that never break ground. Lucas and Luna explore the strange economics of 'zombie appropriations' — budget line items that persist year after year with no tangible output. Using the example of India's long-delayed bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, they trace how political incentives, sunk-cost bias, and weak oversight allow phantom projects to consume real resources. The episode also touches on the US Navy's littoral combat ship program and the UK's HS2 rail project as parallel cases. By the end, you'll understand why cancelling a failed project is often harder than starting it, and what that says about how we measure government productivity. #ZombieAppropriations #GovernmentBudgeting #PublicSpending #PhantomProjects #BulletTrain #IndiaInfrastructure #SunkCostFallacy #FiscalPolicy #HS2 #LittoralCombatShip #Economics #BudgetOversight #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #FiscalPodcast #GovernmentWaste #InfrastructureSpending #PolicyFailure Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo