Re:Those who exercise free speech should also defend it even...
by Retric on Thursday June 25, 2020 @09:48AM
(#23640697)
For clarity the argument goes like this:
The global average military spending is 2.2% of global GDP, the US spends 3.4% of GDP. In a vacuum that looks like a dead loss, but over the last 10,000+ years even minor increases in progress could easily make up for that. Consider the USSR was destroyed by failing to manage that expenditure, in a world without war it could easily still be around. Now extend that back to every poor use of resources eliminated by war like Aztec mass human sacrifice or the southern states use of slavery.
I don’t think it’s acceptable trade off for the direct suffering of war, but it is a defensible argument.
The global average military spending is 2.2% of global GDP, the US spends 3.4% of GDP. In a vacuum that looks like a dead loss, but over the last 10,000+ years even minor increases in progress could easily make up for that. Consider the USSR was destroyed by failing to manage that expenditure, in a world without war it could easily still be around. Now extend that back to every poor use of resources eliminated by war like Aztec mass human sacrifice or the southern states use of slavery.
I don’t think it’s acceptable trade off for the direct suffering of war, but it is a defensible argument.