What is 'waste' ?

Government spending on welfare and infrastructure has been called 'waste'.
My friend John Ryan was a POW under the Japanese, on the Burma road during WW2. He said one thing about it. 'WE lived through all of those years of austerity during the Great Depression - then WW2 happened, and it was cornucopia. The money to fight the war just came from nowhere'.
War is not a waste of money - it is the standard answer when capitalist economies fail by wasting money on infrastructure and welfare. We destroy everything and rebuild it, which improves profits in the private sector from war industries. Perhaps there might be a better way to achieve our goals ?

Cornucopia ... Hmm maybe but everything comes at a price - eventually .... do you remember the WW2 lend / lease deal ?

The UK finally paid off the last installment of this debt on 2th December 2006

You never know we may even see a repeat performance if Putin and others gets any bolder, think I'll invest my pension et al in war industries.

acotrel said:

Government spending on welfare and infrastructure has been called 'waste'.
My friend John Ryan was a POW under the Japanese, on the Burma road during WW2. He said one thing about it. 'WE lived through all of those years of austerity during the Great Depression - then WW2 happened, and it was cornucopia. The money to fight the war just came from nowhere'.
War is not a waste of money - it is the standard answer when capitalist economies fail by wasting money on infrastructure and welfare. We destroy everything and rebuild it, which improves profits in the private sector from war industries. Perhaps there might be a better way to achieve our goals ?

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Well Al, back in trade school, etched into a desktop with a Buck knife some classmate had proclaimed:
"Life is just a waste of time, and time is just a waste of life. So, let's all get wasted and have the time of our life!"

Well that's going to depend on your definition of welfare and infrastructure.

Is welfare a safety net to ensure you have the basics ie food and a roof over your head or the current version of a set % of the average household income. % of the average household leads to odd distortions such as reducing the income of the very rich improves poverty.

As for infrastructure just look at the vanity projects politicians of all persuasions get behind to make you wonder if your taxes are always going to better use than you could put them too.

One random project that had waste written over it from the beginning, promoted from both sides of the political spectrum.

Grandad said:

Cornucopia ... Hmm maybe but everything comes at a price - eventually .... do you remember the WW2 lend / lease deal ?

The UK finally paid off the last installment of this debt on 2th December 2006

You never know we may even see a repeat performance if Putin and others gets any bolder, think I'll invest my pension et al in war industries.

Click to expand...

I can remember when Australia paid of it's debt to the UK, for the cost of billeting Australia during WW1.
I do not believe WW3 can happen. The system does not work that way. There is a lot of control over who gets hurt.