Economics 101 (Military Spending)

The secret of course is to ensure that it's always someone else's money that one "loses".
A little read here:www.v-r-a.org...
where the scandalous wastage and laxity are contrasted with the defeat of the concurrent receipt bill and the wretched miserliness of the Govt when it comes to disabled vets.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
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.

How about your country? Take your tax dollars and feed the poor, the hungry, whoever. I so enjoy it when someone piously tells us how we can spend our money more wisely. Lead the way! Let your country and a few others in your neighborhood evaluate your budgets and feeed the poor. Heck, they may even have to raise your taxes, but that is ok as it will feed the poor. As a matter of fact, start wave of kindness, but start it with your own money. Send half your a chunk of your weekly pay to your government and tell them to go feed people with it. Then, write a letter to the local newspaper about doing it. I'm sure they'll run it, and once all your citizens know about what is going on, they'll do the same thing. Then, your government will surely pitch in, too. They'll stop wasting money wherever it is they wasted it and, man, think of all the poor that will be fed. It'll spread throughout Europe, I'm sure, and as everyone else is much better than us, and their governments are much more efficient, the entire known universe would be fed.
Meanwhile, in order for our weaker allies to be safe while they talk smack about us, we'll maintain a larger military than we personally need and station it all over the world. It costs alot of money, but we'll do it since our allies don't have the ability to do what we can do.

TC

I'm not intimating that the US is solely responsible for feeding every starving mouth in the world.

That is not sensible.

It's just important to recognize your unaccounted for 'missing' tax dollars blown away, misappropriated from the budget, can do that on its own.

Not the whole defense budget. Only the stolen part.

Just to put it in perspective.

Originally posted by MaskedAvatar
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.

Yeah, America is an ogre, we are an empire! How insane. We owe no apology for emperilism as we aren't one. We owe know apology for military work around the world, but there are alot of thank-you's that are owed that we'll never get. And last of all, your idea is one born out of the desire to see the U.S. apologize for being strong, something that causes others extreme jealousy. No apology would stop terrorism. Killing those who want us hurt, that'll stop terrorism. Its a clash of ideologies, it has nothing to do with your politics against us. Your answer is a weak answer that invites more terrorism.

And don't worry about our supporting Israel. They are the only "democracy" in that corner of Serwood Forest and they are our ally. We spent many decades and million billions in Europe, remember? Standing between the Soviet Union and your continent? I remember, I spent my youth standing between them and you.

Your economics 101 showed nothing of where the money went to. I don't know how efficiently your government runs, most likely at 100% efficiently as nobody blasts your government (which is....I mean, I place my location as Alabama, U.S., no shame here.) but my government couldn't keep track of money if their lives depended on it. I know I spend as fast as anyone, but I'm not a politician.

You want to fix the money problem? Get the politicians out of there and replace them with their wives. They handle the checkbook anyway!