8 Most Expensive Mistakes The World Has Ever Made

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.