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I know that people probably know this... but I still think it's important to point out. When they say they spent $37.5 Billion on the Iran War, it's easy to imagine a large pile of money burning. And that would be frustrating.
But that's not what that means. The money didn't go away, it was spent on things, and then those things went away. And when we say it was spent on things, what that means is that companies that make those things were paid to make things, they did make those things, and then those things blew up and were gone.
So it's not so much that $37.5 Billion was spent on the war, as it is that $37.5 Billion of tax money was moved to the revenue line on the income statement of defense contractors. That's where the money went, that's who has it, not to the missiles and the dirt. And that's somehow more frustrating, but it's a lot less confusing...
Yup. Which is one of the reasons trump wanted the EU to spend more money on defense. He means US defense contracts, not making your own local defense.
And then tell EU to go to Iran and do the job for him.
Yes, we understand all that.
$37 billion was thrown into a pile and burned, and now only exists on an excell spreadsheet of some already excessively wealthy asshole.
Might as well have just disappeared. We've known since developing the guns vs butter economic model after WW1 that military spending has a giant opportunity cost. There are so few corporate "defense" contractors, all of which with relatively small amounts of employees, that the money spent in those areas rarely positively influences the greater economy. It just drives inflation without actually getting the government spending to circulate in the economy.
If you spend that money on something like hospitals or schools the economic return is so much greater that it's not even really comparable. You can buy guns or butter, but you can't buy both. It's telling that the party of fiscal conservatives are so willing to spend tens of billions on a war that actively harms their own citizens, but absolutely refuses to invest in education or healthcare.
Right right right, sorry, I wasn't trying to make the claim that this was "good for the economy" or something. All I was saying was that the money didn't disappear, it was given to someone. And it wasn't Iran. Well, maybe some of it was Iran... but most of it might as well have been printed out on a giant novelty check and handed to some rich dudes.
Hey, i love the Money Hole