Economics 101 (Military Spending)

1. I keep reading that the Pentagon has been unable to account for one trillion US dollars (US$1,000,000,000,000). That is a nice round figure. Wondering if anyone knows where the money has been invested, and at what rate of return?

2. Where else in the US economy might it be useful in future to invest one trillion US dollars (US$1,000,000,000,000)?

Best spot to invest it is in paying of the national debt. Thats for starters.

We dont have to be in debt. We can maintain the military at its current, even bigger levels withiut borowing money. The problem is govornment waste and corruption, of course, plus, incompetance.

I read somewhere that projections for the US defense budget in 4 years will be at $500 billion dollars! Currently the second place country behind the US is GB. Go figure.

And, of course, I'm sure there is a lot more that gets spent beyond what is released to the public.

With a waste rate of 73 cents / dollar, Thats probably not even a worry for most of these guys. Where did it go? I'd look right at the very people collecting it for starters and then I'd look in the bank accounts for our Congress and Senate.

So, 350 billion is gonna break the government but a trillion "misplaced" is no biggie? Sounds like the new math coming into play again. As for defense spending, its one of the governments chief duties and out of 128 trillion, its gonna spend 500 billion on military and defense. But after all the waste and embesslement, I guess 500 billion would be just about half of whats left of 128 trillion.

astrocreep, how old is the figure of the US government spending $128 trillion on defence? I've never reviewed these statistics.

It makes the missing loot less than 1% of the whole account, doesn't it. Negligible. Surely a bit of skimming and wastage is OK at that level, and a sign of effective management that it's so small.

That missing money could only feed every person in every famine stricken country every day of every year it's blown away. But really, foreign aid can't be a priority when the US budget is so 'delicately' balanced.

OK I just re-read the budget figures. I am moderately relieved to know $128 trillion isn't a defense budget. But if $500 billion is a ball-park defense budget, how long has it taken to lose $1 trillion?

[Edited on 6-6-2003 by MaskedAvatar]

No 128 trillion is the entire budget. One of the main premis of governemt is defense. If they only spend(and I use the term "only" loosely here) 500 billion, what the hell do they do with the larger portion? Waste it, thats what.

Our whole country has freaked about a 350 billion dollar tax cut which totally eleviates taxes from people in poverty and give business the capital to get the economy pumping again while at the same time a trillion is unaccounted for but thats okay. Its contradiction and its what all the money / power hungry socialist that have embedded themselves in our government are best at. Now, will they find the trillion or will they use it as an excuse to tax the public to make it up? Hmm. Not a tough question to answer is it?

Maybe they have invested that trillion dollars elsewhere, like buying corporations, etc under flase names, under differnet people who have great influence, or something.

For instance. How many organisations/corporations/very large businesses can be bought with 1 trillion dollars? A heck of a lot. Invest that money around the world into corporations that control alot of people, that have people high up the corporate chain of those corporations that have US interests at heart.

Also now imagine the US government in control of those corporations, and making those corporations work together and interwind, set prices, take control of the market, of the people, litarally taking control of large portions of the populations of the Earth and dictating what the people are to get, buy, what is available, at what price, etc.

Taking control, making it all interwind, everyone under control, and litterally making the world work unsuspectingly for another government, and truelly, the New World Government.

but trually think about it. 1 trillion dollars can buy a heck of alot of stuff. Especially overseas in places like China.

If 500 billion dollars makes the US military work for 1 year.

But how many billions is it that those people working in the US army are paid? Maybe 100 billion? could be more.

But now think what a trillion dollars could buy, having Cheap Chinese labour work for Corporations, making things, anything, and getting mega profit by selling these items overseas for much, much higher prices than what the labour cost.

1 trillion dollars could keep alot of Chinese working for cheap prices making expensive items for a long time.

How much money would you get back for selling expensive items such as TV's, refrigerators, stereo's, made made in China for cheap, selling them overseas?

ALOT of profit. Especially from a trillion dollars.

And what's the exchange rate for $1 trillion US into Chinese money. How much cheap minimum wage Chinese workers could you have working for you?

I'm justusing China as an example as the exchange rate is very big i think compared, and China is known for cheap labour and lots of people.

Yeah $500 billion could sure net a lot of stuff in countries with cheap labour. I'm not sure how much could be repatriated out of China though.

I think the missing trillion dollars is in back pocket retirement funds and will be well and truly gone by the time the 30-year disclosure periods run thorugh. But it would be good to claw the investment back from the sons and daughters of these corrupt bastards.

i wudn't give china a nickel they're using the money from our plastic toys to build weapons to destroy us

"i wudn't give china a nickel they're using the money from our plastic toys to build weapons to destroy us"

So you're saying that you wouldn't hire as many chinese you could including parts to make the expensive items you're going to sell and make huge profits on, that you could get for 1 trillion dollars?

Do you know how much labour 1 trillion dollars could get you in China? well take away from the 1 trillion dollars the parts to make the items that you're going to be making and selling at much higher rates to other countries.

You would make an absolute killing.

You know how much money u'd make off of it? ABSOLUTELY HEAPS!

WAY WAY WAY WAY more than 1 trillion dollars.

And that'll be profit buddy...profit...

How much then could the US spend on it's weapons programs to destroy any place they want.

If that's where the 1 trillion dollars went and they did it like that, and the profits went to the US government...then you could bet ur life that 128 trillion that the US has for it's entire budget, would be about doubled, well maybe not doubled...but much, much higher. And what do you control as well as having heaps of money? You control heaps of Chinese. And with the profit you make what could you do with it? Invest it in more chinese or other countries....

What happens eventually? Control the world.

What do you think corporations do?


You know that Bill Clinton basically made a deal with Russia that as long as Russia buys US chickens....US will let Russia kill as many Chechz as they want.

Chickens for Chechz. Sounds good ey?

the money from the workers is taxed by the government which in turn is used to build weapons, but coporations don't see that b/c its easier if they get cheap labour and a big part of the economny needs it, i'd take my business to japan or another friendly nation b/c i'll be honest a large part of the economy relies on those plastic toys

Well, thats a first! The governement buying corperations? I usually here it the other way around. I really don't think our US government needs to buy corperations. If something turns out to be profitable, they just condemn it and take the profits while letting poor bastards who built it with risk-taking, hard work and sacrifice stay on to administrate it for a yearly wage. Just take the Vegas casinos for example. The government has wasted away their budget and are in a hard place and because the casinos were managed well enough to make huge profits, they see them as cash cows just waiting to be milked but because of the nature of government, they need the people who know how to run them to remain but instead of the profits they deserve for their investment, they get a fraction of them.

No, I say that the trillion dollars missing is nothing more than carelessness, corruption, and embezzlement. All this being the case, and they still blame the people who are getting a tax break (finally after a decade of being ripped) for the deficit and for the poor not getting anything. The big secret is, our government keep the poor in their situation because without them, they don't have much of an excuse to tax like they do. We had 2 14% tax raises in the 90s so why isn't the poor any better off? Because the money is wasted and not used properly. If you want my opinion, the trillion isn't lost. its already spent whether for blackmail payoffs or additions to our representative's luxury mansions. Thus my argument for term limits on their positions.

"misplaced" a trillion dollars?

It takes money to build underground bunkers, and covert bases, as well as top-secret craft, and this can't exactly be itemized on an invoice to Congress, now can it? Where do you think those $400 hammers come into play?

I just read that the annual US defense budget is $20,000 per hour for each hour since Jesus Christ was born.

That is what $350 billion + per annum comes to.

www.whatreallyhappened.com...

(Writer's opinion, not mine) If I were the president, I could stop terrorist attacks against the United States in a few days. Permanently. I would first apologize -- very publicly and very sincerely -- to all the widows and orphans, the impoverished and the tortured, and all the many millions of other victims of American imperialism. Then I would announce that America's global military interventions have come to an end. I would then inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but -- oddly enough -- a foreign country. Then I would reduce the military budget by at least 90 percent and use the savings to pay reparations to the victims and repair the damage from the many American bombings, invasions and sanctions. There would be enough money. One year of our military budget is equal to more than $20,000 per hour for every hour since Jesus Christ was born. That's one year. That's what I'd do on my first three days in the White House. On the fourth day, I'd probably be assassinated.

The Chinese yuan is "pegged" to the US dollar (much to the chagrin of the US) at a little over 8.2, so it's 8,200,000,000,000 yuan (or rmb) and a Chinese factory worker will give you a year's work ( longer hours) for around 30,000 yuan so that's the numerical equivalent of the entire labour force of the US (and Chinese labour is usually skilled) working for about 2 years (roughly): sounds tempting.

Cigital Inc reckoned software failures cost US industry half a trillion in 2,000 ( the Mars Lander fiasco was 360 million)
Saving and Loan mismagement is put at half a trillion lost
NASDAQ had 3 trillion wiped off
US pension funds lost a trillion betyween 199 1nd 2002.
So it looks very easy to lose a trillion in America.
On the other hand, a trillion is almost exactly (how can these silly numbers be exact?) what the US spends opn Alzheimers care so perhaps various presidents have been setting a little aside for their inevitable brain-failure.