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Economic costs of war

watson.brown.edu

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Re: Economic costs of war

#81

Post by pessimizer »

s5300 wrote: post #34
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

Deaths 9/11 2,996 Deaths Covid-19 USA 621,000 207x Lack of understanding of large numbers is a flaw in the human mind we have to figure out how to fix.

I swear dude. I cannot understand just why it is that the average person seems to be so incapable at understanding statistics and large numbers. It's mind boggling. Ever since my freshman engineering stats class, it's like everywhere I look at where there's stupid bullshit happening, a large reason as to why the stupid bullshit is happening is because people have zero understanding of statistics and large numbers. It…

Statistics are not intuitive, and it's the assumption that they are that leads people into error.

Re: Economic costs of war

#82

Post by mrleinad »

jaggederest wrote: post #6

Approximately $20,000 per person. $1000 a year would have made a nice universal basic income for the last 20 years.

If all that money was spent in the US, you'd have a much higher inflation.

This is another way the US exports the dollar as a worldwide currency, and is able to print money without causing high inflation domestically.

Re: Economic costs of war

#83

Post by baybal2 »

runawaybottle wrote: post #13
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

Deaths 9/11 2,996 Deaths Covid-19 USA 621,000 207x Lack of understanding of large numbers is a flaw in the human mind we have to figure out how to fix.

Some related numbers for just Afghanistan: American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448. U.S. contractors: 3,846. Afghan national military and police: 66,000. Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144. Afghan civilians: 47,245. Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191. Aid workers: 444. Journalists: 72. https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-business-afgh…

That's a big undercount on the civilian, and opposing force side.

If you count in excess deaths, and missing people, the count will more than double.

Re: Economic costs of war

#84

Post by Rebelgecko »

dlp211 wrote: post #31
jonthepirate wrote: post #17

Sure glad my taxes are 55%

Since this is based on US spending I am assuming you are talking about US taxes, in which case, no you are not paying 55% in taxes.

If you're making $10 million per year in a high tax state like California, your effective tax rate is still only 52%

Re: Economic costs of war

#85

Post by tuxoko »

CptJamesCook wrote: post #42
dlp211 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since this is based on US spending I am assuming you are talking about US taxes, in which case, no you are not paying 55% in taxes.

37% federal, 13.3% california = 50.3 Most wealthy people spend another 1-2% of their income on property taxes and a bit on sales taxes, etc. I estimate I pay 53% of my income to taxes. I agree that 55% is unlikely tho

You don't pay 37% federal. 37% is only for the top bracket.

Re: Economic costs of war

#86

Post by Grakel »

yunohn wrote: post #55
Grakel wrote: post #2

There isn't an "opportunity cost" as the article discusses, there's no evidence that Congress would have spent that money on something else. It doesn't sit in an account and then they allocate it, they make it up on paper and then try (and fail) to cover it later.

> there's no evidence that Congress would have spent that money on something else “Reality is unchangeable, so we can’t know the unknown” So what? It definitely could’ve been spent better than decade’s killing hundreds of thousands of civilians.

You don't get it. It couldn't have been spent on something else. If the day before 9/11 Congress had passed universal healthcare, free college, and basic income, they still would have spent this money on a war. Are you saying they could have said, oh we got attacked, let's estimate the cost of a war and put it into healthcare?

Re: Economic costs of war

#87

Post by finnh »

slacktide wrote: post #71
OJFord wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy a house with a mortgage, I think it's reasonable to say you 'spent' the booked value.

It's really not. If you buy a house with a mortgage, and later sell the house before the note is due, you will not owe the full amount of the accrued interest. Unfortunately the resale value of a secondhand war is very low.

> you will not owe the full amount of the accrued interest

Yes, you will. "accrued interest" is "unpaid interest as of the time of ___"; at the moment you sell the house you will have paid all of the interest up to that moment.

There's no early-payment penalty on mortgages, as of the last many decades; maybe that's what you mean?

Re: Economic costs of war

#88

Post by lmilcin »

mulmen wrote: post #46
lmilcin wrote: post #19

Nah... probably large portion of this was paid to US corporations and citizens. Spending on the level of government is counterintuitive. If you are government you hand out money but it gets back to you. Unfortunately, interest on that debt is real and is owed to other countries.

How is it owed to other countries?

You borrow money, they want it back with interest.

Have you ever borrowed money from mommy for lollipops? She probably didn't want it back, but other countries are not so nice.

Re: Economic costs of war

#89

Post by markdown »

glitchc wrote: post #40
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #5

Deaths 9/11 2,996 Deaths Covid-19 USA 621,000 207x Lack of understanding of large numbers is a flaw in the human mind we have to figure out how to fix.

It’s not the what, but the how. A terrorist attack on home turf is a slap in the face of every American. Outrage is to be expected.

Patriotism is a sickness that the world would be better without.

Re: Economic costs of war

#90

Post by amatic »

jaggederest wrote: post #6

Approximately $20,000 per person. $1000 a year would have made a nice universal basic income for the last 20 years.

Is there a brakedown of where does this money "spent on war" finaly go? Military personel salaries, rifles, tanks, airplanes, r&d?
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