Family War Budget
from the whats-it-good-for dept.
It looks like our family budget is kind-of out of whack. We spend roughly $8,000 annually on food and such, $2000 annually on fuel. I know we could do better. But by far, the thing that is really out of control is our family's yearly budget on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between the four of us, we are spending $46,000 on war over ten years.
It's like we're addicted to war. Our family needs to spend about $383.33 each month on this war stuff. It's certainly more than we pay for fuel, but I guess it keeps the fuel prices down, right?
I just don't know what to do about it. It's not like we can just stop cold turkey, right? In fact, my family and I are planning on stepping up on our war spending for the next few years, since we need to 1) win the war on terror, 2) return democracy to the Iraqi and Afghan people, and 3) encourage reform in other governments by making clear that success in our relations will require the decent treatment of their own people.
Where are we going to find the money to "encourage" reform (i.e. wage war)? I guess we'll have to cut back on food because this war is so worth it. God Bless America!
Of course, I'm kidding about "family war spending." Or am I? Congress' Joint Economic Committee has released a report on the total costs of the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the "hidden costs" such as interest paid on foreign borrowing and long-term health care for veterans.
The cost will be $3.5 trillion over 10 years if we go by their calculations. That means my family's share is $46,000. When do I write the check to allow the government to spend such amounts? That's the "beauty" of our monetary system. I need not write the check directly if I don't want to. No, I'm not talking about IRS withholding. I'm talking about inflation, which is our government's favorite means of secretly "extracting" funds from its citizens (i.e. theft).
The government could never raise this kind of money if they were to resort to mere taxing. A family of four could never fork over the $4,600 annually if a direct, apportioned tax was to be implemented ("direct and apportioned" taxes are the only legitimate taxes authorized in the Constitution, and please put away your copy of the 16th Amendment because it gives Congress no new powers to tax according to the Supreme Court [240 U.S. 103, 113]).
All the government has to do is spend the newly created money (like through uncontested bids from pet contractors) which results in artificial financial bubbles in our economy. The side effect is that these bubbles either pop, creating monetary disasters like the NASDAQ crash of April 2000, or the bubbles are eased by forcing prices to go up (i.e. inflation).
Either way, the poor and middle-class will pay. Today, the bubble that is about to burst is the sub-prime mortgage sector, and that will most certainly spill into other sectors like it did in April 2000. But inflation is as active as ever, so even though my family does not have a mortgage to worry about, we still have to worry about inflation as much as everyone else.
Donald L. Kohn's, vice chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System remarked recently, "... the degree of deteriorating that's happened over the last couple of weeks is not something that I personally anticipated. I think the losses that have been announced were greater than people expected. This raised questions about financial institutions, how much capital they had, how vigorous they would be in pursuing new loans. Financial institutions became more cautious. And I think this process is one that we're going to have to take a look at when we meet in a couple weeks."
That comment alone from a guy like the vice chairman is enough to pop the bubble over night. Investors are a nervous bunch, and when Mr. Kohn says something as dire as this ... well ... speculation is rather pointless. Dollar, meet rock.
[update 2008-04-03]: A reader pointed out an error in my math. So I have adjusted this article. My mistake was to consider the $46,000 figure as an annual amount instead of $4,600. Thank you, Sean.
By the way, the $3.5 trillion is now out of date. Studies are now talking about $2.6 being spent so far.
Posted: Saturday - December 08, 2007 at 06:57 PM |
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