# It'll take a lot of gold, man, to pay THIS hospital bill! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 7, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996 "2014-11-07T17:24:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/1 "2014-11-07T17:24:41Z")
Talk about inflation! Mark Wahlberg is set to star in an movie adaptation of “The Six Million Dollar Man”, but it seems our dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to so the title of the film will be [“The Six Billion Dollar Man”](http://deadline.com/2014/11/mark-wahlberg-six-billion-dollar-man-movie-peter-berg-1201274727/). No word yet on who will be playing the bionic dog. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/2 "2014-11-07T17:29:40Z")
Seriously, for $6 billion you could train and equip a Special Forces regiment. Unless you’re getting the equivalent of Superman or Doctor Manhattan, investing it all in one man is grossly inefficient. The actual inflation-adjusted value of $6 million in 1972 is about $35 million today, incidentally. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/3 "2014-11-07T17:33:25Z")
The Six Million Dollar Man – He once had rotator cuff surgery and there was the time he needed his appendix out. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/4 "2014-11-07T17:35:36Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Seriously, for $6 billion you could train and equip a Special Forces regiment. Unless you’re getting the equivalent of Superman or Doctor Manhattan, investing it all in one man is grossly inefficient. > > The actual inflation-adjusted value of $6 million in 1972 is about $35 million today, incidentally. Yeah, but even at the time, $6 million was kind of ridiculously low for a government project. I worked for a beltway bandit in the late 80’s, and by then, $6 million would barely get you a well-researched report. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/5 "2014-11-07T17:50:57Z")
Of course, now I’m curious what $6 mill in today’s dollars could actually get you in physical enhancements. It’d probably still be better to get four or five Navy SEALs and spend the money on their equipment and support structure. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/6 "2014-11-07T18:03:11Z")
Maybe there will be more bionic men, and the price for each will go down as they’re able to spread the cost of the project among more units. In other words, the sequel will be _The 2 Three Billion Dollar Men_, followed by _The 3 Men Whose Unit Cost Was Approximately Two Billion Dollars Each_, and then the confusingly-named reunion movie 25 years later, _The Six Billion-Dollar Men: The Amortization_. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/7 "2014-11-07T19:03:38Z")
A billion here, a billion there. Pretty soon, you’re talking real money. Is Steve Austin now a shuttle pilot, who flew STS-136? And who will they get for the all-important role of Bigfoot? ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/8 "2014-11-07T19:16:39Z")
And just how big will his foot be? ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/9 "2014-11-07T19:18:33Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Seriously, for $6 billion you could train and equip a Special Forces regiment. Unless you’re getting the equivalent of Superman or Doctor Manhattan, investing it all in one man is grossly inefficient. > > The actual inflation-adjusted value of $6 million in 1972 is about $35 million today, incidentally. Superman is better than the entire world’s combined armed forces. A B-2 bomber is ~$2B. Getting someone Captain America level out of it seems more reasonable to me. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/10 "2014-11-07T19:20:40Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Talk about inflation! Mark Wahlberg is set to star in an movie adaptation of “The Six Million Dollar Man”, but it seems our dollar doesn’t go as far as it used to so the title of the film will be [“The Six Billion Dollar Man”](http://deadline.com/2014/11/mark-wahlberg-six-billion-dollar-man-movie-peter-berg-1201274727/). Fuckin’ Obamacare. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/11 "2014-11-07T19:20:57Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And who will they get for the all-important role of Bigfoot? Verne Troyer. They decided to take the project in a new direction. ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/12 "2014-11-07T19:27:57Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Verne Troyer. They decided to take the project in a new direction. Is he just playing the foot? ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/13 "2014-11-07T19:32:52Z")
I wonder where they’re going to go with this. Back in the day, having robotic super strength and speed was kind of cool. But since then, we’ve had a million movies with Terminators and cyborgs and robocops. So…not that impressive. And at six billion dollars for an asset – well, it’s a bit hard to imagine the covert mission where the risk of losing that is worth the benefit. That’s in the ballpark for an aircraft carrier, and they don’t let those out to play without a few billion dollars of support craft surrounding them. Also – the title of the OP? I saw what you did there. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/14 "2014-11-07T19:53:09Z")
> [@Finagle](#): > > I wonder where they’re going to go with this. Back in the day, having robotic super strength and speed was kind of cool. But since then, we’ve had a million movies with Terminators and cyborgs and robocops. So…not that impressive. For me, it’s pretty simple: I want to watch a movie about someone who becomes a cyborg, but not this movie. It’s a subject that interests me, one of my short stories is about the subject, but the implementation matters. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/15 "2014-11-07T20:03:38Z")
Are they just taking the title, or are they going to try to adapt Caidin’s novel? With modern CGI, they could do the robot dolphin. ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/16 "2014-11-07T20:18:45Z")
Adjusting for inflation, $6,000,000 in 1972 would be $34,167,129.19 today. Probably wouldn’t make for a good title tho. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/17 "2014-11-07T20:22:35Z")
I don’t know about Mark Wahlberg in the title role. Clearly, there’s only one man alive fit to play the part of [an unstoppable badass worth millions of dollars and named Steve Austin.](http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve-austin.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/18 "2014-11-07T20:44:49Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I don’t know about Mark Wahlberg in the title role. > > Clearly, there’s only one man alive fit to play the part of [an unstoppable badass worth millions of dollars and named Steve Austin.](http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/steve-austin.jpg) But he is stoppable - with the Power of Fire. No, wait, that’s Martian Manhunter, isn’t it? Austin’s weakness is the power of “YOU’RE FIRED!” (Seriously, after storyline after storyline where Austin keeps saying, “You can’t fire my ass!”, Vince McMahon shows up at the start of an episode of RAW and announces that Austin was fired, end of story, we’ll mention it about as much as we mention Droz’s paralyzing in-ring injury on Smackdown that we never did bother showing, nothing to see here folks, just move along.) Speaking of wrestlers… > [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And who will they get for the all-important role of Bigfoot? Big Show. He already has TV experience - TV _acting_ experience - TV _scripted_ acting experience - you know what I mean; he was in an episode of _Star Trek Enterprise_. He was also teased as being Andre’s son at one point. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/19 "2014-11-07T21:14:50Z")
I think the 6 Million Peso man would make for a more enjoyable flick. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2014, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996/20 "2014-11-07T22:37:14Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > Maybe there will be more bionic men, and the price for each will go down as they’re able to spread the cost of the project among more units… That makes sense, though IIRC the Bionic Woman actually cost more than $6M because of the miniaturization requirements to fit the female form. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/itll-take-a-lot-of-gold-man-to-pay-this-hospital-bill/703996.md?page=2)