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Re:Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565m above China’s south-we... by rubyn00bie on Sunday July 09, 2017 @05:19PM (#14731721)
Sorry but your $800bn figure is bullshit. I'd highly recommend reading The Three Trillion Dollar War: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Trillion_Dollar_Wa...

Even moderate estimates put it at about $5 Trillion, the most conservative at $3 trillion, with the high end (reality) at $8+.

One huge cost people completely ignore is the cost of health care for the vets we bring back who suffer from a huge number of physical and mental issues. It's also one we'll be paying for the next 40-50 years.

Re:Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565m above China’s south-we... by twoodfin on Sunday July 09, 2017 @06:21PM (#14732046)
It isn't bullshit. It's the actual budgetary cost of the war to date, and it's nowhere near $14T.

As I said, you can project all sorts of future costs, or costs to the broader economy. But $14T is a nutty figure to claim was available to spend in lieu of wars and bailouts.

Re:Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565m above China’s south-we... by rubyn00bie on Sunday July 09, 2017 @06:51PM (#14732162)
It is bullshit even at current costs, $800bn is no where close to accurate, 14 trilion is by several factors a much closer number, considering most of the budget has been appropriated off budget as another person said. But if you read my comment, you'll see I have more accurate numbers.

Additionally, to ignore future costs is absolutely how we end up spending incredible amounts war mongering and passing the deficit to future administrations and people. If we correctly calculated the costs it would've been seen as outrageous. What you're saying is analogous to buying a car but not factoring in the cost of interest, when that interest payment is 25%, and the cost of maintenance and repair.

You provide zero proof to backup your claim as well. Show me something to change my mind, or read the linked book and educate yourself. Spouting lies does nothing valuable for society or yourself. Let it be known my degree is in economics, I'm not spouting off some list of bullshit facts from a "documentary" video on Youtube.

Re:Beipanjiang Bridge, suspended 565m above China’s south-we... by jhayward on Sunday July 09, 2017 @06:29PM (#14732069)
> It's the actual budgetary cost of the war to date

Given that the entire war(s) have been funded off-budget I'm not sure I would accept a budgetary figure as given.