Our manned space program might almost work if we slashed safety standards
I think the shuttle and ISS are just stupid on a dollar-per-result basis. It would be interesting though, to calculate the costs of building some shoddy replacement shuttles and cut corners elsewhere, accepting an annual death toll of nine, say (using Columbia astronauts plus the two searchers as the standard).
I bet it still wouldn't work. Unmanned space would still be cheaper.