What can $611 Billion buy?

[phiphika1453]

This is a comparative cost analysis of what the money spent on the war could have bought.

Granted the federal government is not responsible for some of the things mentioned in the comparison, but it is still mind boggling the amount of money spent on this war.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ga...1007war_costs/

[DontRaiseMeBro]

fed and educated the worlds poor for 7 years... that's fkn heartbreaking

[JayTee]

You could give everybody a pony

..and have enough left over to give everybody a $100 hotdog.

[boracay]

Two scholars, one a Nobel Prize winner, revisit their estimate of the true cost of the Iraq war – and find that $2 trillion was too low.

Good question for those advocating war against Iran - how much would that war cost? Would it be good for America or average Americans?

[adios]

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Oil Prices ....

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Alan Greenspan has a different take on this than these folks give which he details in his new book. Didn't some leftist on this forum call Stiglitz a right wing economist recently?

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Budget Reallocation ...

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Actually money spent on Iraq is "off budget." This part is kinda weak IMO. I think he could make a better case about the government having to borrow more money to finance the war and having an effect on the budget in the future.

What's missing is what should be included IMO in any analysis like this, the benefits. Now the authors may think there are no benefits at all but they should actually come out and say so.

Stiglitz worked in the Clinton administration and IMO this has at leat the hint of a political statement more than a legitimate cost-benefit analysis.

[natedogg]

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fed and educated the worlds poor for 7 years... that's fkn heartbreaking

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This should be revised to "attempt to ..." because there is no freakin way you could successfully accomplish that for 611 billion. Just imagine all the bureaucratic blunders that would take place. We can hardly educate our own poor in the state of California for 50 billion a year.

That's not even counting the "feeding" part, which we all know the only reason anyone in this world goes hungry is because their government is causing the problem. You can't feed people when the regime won't let you or is so corrupt that your efforts are meaningless.

611 billion to feed and educate the world's poor? A typical leftist pipedream. Unless he's suggesting we spend the 611 to undermine the regimes in this world that keep their people hungry and uneducated?

But that would be nation-building, no different than spending the 611 billion on an Iraq war.

natedogg

[Inso0]

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fed and educated the worlds poor for 7 years... that's fkn heartbreaking

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This should be revised to "attempt to ..." because there is no freakin way you could successfully accomplish that for 611 billion. Just imagine all the bureaucratic blunders that would take place. We can hardly educate our own poor in the state of California for 50 billion a year.

That's not even counting the "feeding" part, which we all know the only reason anyone in this world goes hungry is because their government is causing the problem. You can't feed people when the regime won't let you or is so corrupt that your efforts are meaningless.

611 billion to feed and educate the world's poor? A typical leftist pipedream. Unless he's suggesting we spend the 611 to undermine the regimes in this world that keep their people hungry and uneducated?

But that would be nation-building, no different than spending the 611 billion on an Iraq war.

natedogg

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WINNAR!

[Barcalounger]

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fed and educated the worlds poor for 7 years... that's fkn heartbreaking

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[Nonfiction]

hookers and blow ldo

[Borodog]

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What can $611 Billion buy?

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Give it a few years.