Does military spending crowd out infrastructure spending? Or is military spending simply the only kind of spending that the 1% are willing to support? If we weren't spending on the military, I have no confidence that we would suddenly start spending more on education, healthcare or the general welfare.
Does military spending crowd out private manufacturing spending? Maybe it goes the other way: Once we've offshored all the commodity manufacturing we can, the factories that are left chase the only game left and start lobbying for defense contracts.
There is a section saying that war is always inflationary. This seems to depend on the academic definition of "inflation" as an increase in the monetary base. Since most people use "inflation" to mean "the things I buy cost more than they used to" then we're not seeing that during the modern wars.
This: "It is ironic that America’s huge military spending is what made us an empire … but our huge military is what is bankrupting us … thus destroying our status as an empire." That's not ironic, that's the way of most empires.
What Trevor says about taxes is true. Make it simpler and put all those accountants to better use.
And +5 to kaleberg on business reforms.
Does military spending crowd out private manufacturing spending? Maybe it goes the other way: Once we've offshored all the commodity manufacturing we can, the factories that are left chase the only game left and start lobbying for defense contracts.
There is a section saying that war is always inflationary. This seems to depend on the academic definition of "inflation" as an increase in the monetary base. Since most people use "inflation" to mean "the things I buy cost more than they used to" then we're not seeing that during the modern wars.
This: "It is ironic that America’s huge military spending is what made us an empire … but our huge military is what is bankrupting us … thus destroying our status as an empire." That's not ironic, that's the way of most empires.
What Trevor says about taxes is true. Make it simpler and put all those accountants to better use.
And +5 to kaleberg on business reforms.