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It’s daunting to think that all your lifetime contributions to the IRS might be spent launching one or two Javeline missiles in the Middle East.
by henry2023 1y ago
It’s daunting to think that all your lifetime contributions to the IRS might be spent launching one or two Javeline missiles in the Middle East.
- Gigachad 1y agoIt’ll be worth denying all those local citizens healthcare just so that some people far away can be blown up.
- dilawar 1y ago[flagged]
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- therein 1y agoWith the amount of money printing going on, it is really insincere for them to create that false dichotomy anyway. It was never about which one out of the two we could afford.
- jmcgough 1y agoThe federal bank performed quantitative easing between 2008 and 2014 as well, during the last economic crisis, but no one complained about "money printing" then. Inflation over the last few years has been a largely global phenomenon, which most economists attribute to supply chain disruptions, increased demand, and rising energy costs.
- therein 1y agoThose QE periods were minuscule in how much they printed compared to this last phase we have entered. The rise in M2 money supply is out of this world.
- lisbbb 1y agoHow many more turns do we get before the dollar is Weimar worthless? Seems like not many...
- immibis 1y agoIt can't happen as long as the US dollar is the world reserve currency - every other country will inflate almost as much as the US, keeping the demand in US dollars. And the USA will never lose that status as long as it keeps importing things from so many other countries. Oops!
- kldg 1y agoRIP Ron Paul Revolution.
- Der_Einzige 1y agohttps://tenor.com/view/excited-ronpaul-itshappening-lights-gif-4724084 https://tenor.com/view/excited-ronpaul-itshappening-lights-g...
- terminalshort 1y agoThe "supply chain disruptions" explanation was always complete garbage. When there's a supply chain disruption, the price goes up and then comes back down when the disruption ends. It's very easy to see that the money supply barely increased from 2008-2014 and jumped massively during covid. https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WM2NS https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/WM2NS
- lisbbb 1y agoI now think that we've been lied to big time: One thing Covid was good for was to provide a cover story for massive inflation that was likely coming no matter what. I'm not saying it was released for that reason (and yes, I do think it was deliberately released) but governments worldwide certainly took full advantage of the chaos and uncertainty to pull off all kinds of devious projects that they had on the back burner. Look at how effective Covid was at ending the democracy movement in Hong Kong, for example. Massive overhang of inflation? No problem!
- liveoneggs 1y agoBecause most other governments also printed a bunch of money
- rayiner 1y agoThe federal government alone spends $1.9 trillion annually on healthcare. That's enough to buy almost a million Tomahawk missiles every year. The total production will be around 9,000 missiles over 46 years, or less than 200 per year. We do not meaningfully choose between paying for healthcare domestically and blowing up foreigners. Even overthrowing Iraq's government and trying to make it a democracy only cost about $2.4 trillion over 10 years.
- hiddencost 1y agoUh I think you're missing the point. Your numbers are a mess and jump wildly between scales.
- tonyhart7 1y ago[flagged]
- rayiner 1y agoThe U.S. didn't even get the oil! The Chinese got the oil. The whole thing was because George W. Bush's heart was bigger than his brain: he thought the U.S. could create a functioning democracy from the Iraqi population.
- tonyhart7 1y ago[flagged]
- ViscountPenguin 1y agoTbh, there's a non zero chance it would've been successful if not for insane policies like de baathification.
- ido 1y agoIraq's current government is still siginficantly better than Saddam's regime, depsite being currupt and somewhat dysfunctional (and things have improved over the years in case you dig up an article from a decade ago about ISIS).
- sidewndr46 1y agoThere's apparently at one least cruise missile variant that basically mounts a sword on the warhead with a thin fairing. It's apparently used for killing a single target
- BurningFrog 1y agoThis one: https://youtu.be/weJKPcOHI0U?si=BOoGqYrixa3Bulfq https://youtu.be/weJKPcOHI0U?si=BOoGqYrixa3Bulfq
- Polizeiposaune 1y agoYou're thinking of the AGM-114R-9X "Flying Ginsu", which is a variant of the short-range AGM-114 Hellfire anti-tank missile. It's not a cruise missile.
- sidewndr46 1y agoApparently yes I am. Thanks for correcting me
- red-iron-pine 1y agonot a cruise missile, basically just a modified hellfire. uses multiple swords. basically just a long tube with blades on it, designed to kill through direct kinetic force.
- lotsofpulp 1y agoHealthcare spend, not including state and local governments, is many multiples of military spend: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/ https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/feder...
- dragonwriter 1y agoThe US, by all evidence, spends more on its non-universal, gap-prone, healthcare system than any reasonable (single-payer, government-provided, or mostly private insurance with universal guarantee) universal healthcare system would cost; the US spends ludicrously more than any other country per capita, and much more than most universal systems on a per GDP basis (heck, the government side of the US system alone costs a greater share of GDP than some universal systems, and more per capita than basically any of them, even without counting the larger private side.) The US doesn't deny local citizens healthcare so that some people far away can be blown up. If anything, it limits its ability to blow people up far away with all the extra money it is spending locally to prevent people from getting healthcare. But the US has lots of money, so it still finds quite a bit for blowing people up far away.
- tstrimple 1y agoThe US has a critical case of NIH syndrome. Nothing any other country in the world does can possibly work here regardless of how much evidence because the US is a special snowflake of a country that has black people and rural areas and no other country in the world could possibly comprehend our struggles.
- thrance 1y agoYes, but think about how much money ends up in the pockets of private contractors, and how much suffering it causes. Don't you feel better?
- brookst 1y agoFortunately there are hundreds of millions of other people also paying taxes, so the Middle East can be sufficiently showered in javelin missiles.
- littlestymaar 1y agoReminds me of this quote “ Each Javelin round costs $80,000, and the idea that it's fired by a guy who doesn't make that in a year at a guy who doesn't make that in a lifetime is somehow so outrageous it almost makes the war seem winnable.”
- JamesAdir 1y agoIf those 2 missiles can change the course of planned attack similar to 9/11, then it might be not daunting at all.
- pjc50 1y agoWhat if, on seeing two missiles wipe out another set of families, someone decides that they're now radicalized to carry out a 9/11 in revenge?
- octopoc 1y agoThen it's an investment in future war profits. Ka-ching!
- JamesAdir 1y agoUnfortunately, terror finds it's ways regardless of what the attacked country does or doesn't do. Can you explain for example why the Yemenis are closing the shipping passage near Yemen?
- boston_clone 1y agoIsn’t this answer easily findable? It’s a clear response to the aggressive US/IL foreign policy in the area. Here’s an excerpt from an article in late ‘23 - “The Houthis […] say they are targeting Israel-based ships or vessels headed to Israel. They are attacking ships as they cross the strait of Bab el-Mandeb, connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. The Red Sea hostilities are part of a pattern of Middle East attacks from Iranian-backed groups against the U.S. and Israel in response to the Israel-Hamas war.” https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4382064-houthis-force-cargo-ships-to-take-long-route-at-a-cost/ https://thehill.com/policy/defense/4382064-houthis-force-car...