Archived Topic

B for Billions

by Mars · 11/5/2010

Mars

11/5/2010, 4:16:53 PM

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_EohrxoIqzUQ/TND1ENuACTI/AAAAAAAAAHg/0QFv_XrKHxw/s1600/billion_dollar_960.gif" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

BroncoBot

11/5/2010, 4:58:43 PM

Why does Walmart profits, and Russia defense spending look so much different to me. both are 11B right?

Anyone else feeling buyers remorse over iraq? only cost 115 to rebuild Europe and we've wasted 3000B in Iraq. Ouch.

Mars

11/5/2010, 6:06:40 PM

declocoug wrote:
Anyone else feeling buyers remorse over iraq? only cost 115 to rebuild Europe and we've wasted 3000B in Iraq. Ouch.

I don't get that. It appears to be the estimated total. But 1 year in Iraq appears to cost about $100B. So are they estimated that the US will occupy Iraq for 30 years? Because that sounds intellectually dishonest.

I found the most interesting comparison to be between the Great Depression and the current depression, government spending-wise.

SpiffCoug

11/5/2010, 6:14:07 PM

I think they're also counting how much it costs to maintain the war efforts there, not just the money sent to rebuild.

But, yeah, I don't think we should have gone into Iraq. Didn't think so in 2002. Didn't think so in 2003 when I was on my way over there. Still don't think so.

ABYUFAN

11/5/2010, 6:20:14 PM

Sorry - B is for

http://www.cookeatfret.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/plated-candied-bacon.JPG" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

and nothng else!

BroncoBot

11/5/2010, 6:28:31 PM

kitic77 wrote:
I think they're also counting how much it costs to maintain the war efforts there, not just the money sent to rebuild.

But, yeah, I don't think we should have gone into Iraq. Didn't think so in 2002. Didn't think so in 2003 when I was on my way over there. Still don't think so.

I was in east europe when the US went into Iraq. Besides slowing down the missionary work dramatically (my mission pres who was in the military his entire life was NOT happy about the United States actions), we had a ton of Afghanistan veterans who fought with Russia, tell us that the United States would learn they can't win a war with those people. So far it's been prophetic.

Italics

11/5/2010, 11:24:00 PM

it'd be neat to see where these "factual" and "estimated" figures come from.

Still neat, though.

BroncoBot

11/6/2010, 12:09:44 AM

Italics wrote:
it'd be neat to see where these "factual" and "estimated" figures come from.

Still neat, though.

Agree, interesting but there could definitely be an agenda behind it.

Mars

11/6/2010, 1:35:03 AM

Italics wrote:
it'd be neat to see where these "factual" and "estimated" figures come from.

Every source with link: https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AmCeWwNKr6FmdEhUMkhOLTdqMjducDFkT05qVzRqSkE&hl=en#gid=0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

BoiseBYU

11/6/2010, 4:49:17 AM

declocoug wrote:
Why does Walmart profits, and Russia defense spending look so much different to me. both are 11B right?

Anyone else feeling buyers remorse over iraq? only cost 115 to rebuild Europe and we've wasted 3000B in Iraq. Ouch.

I do...but it is all good because we are not really paying for it--we are just shucking it off on our grandkids' backs to deal with

kiwibacon

11/6/2010, 7:04:48 AM

declocoug wrote:
Why does Walmart profits, and Russia defense spending look so much different to me. both are 11B right?

Because they are different. Look at the graph again. It is Russia's defence, not their defense. That is where you erred. :D

snoscythe

11/6/2010, 2:37:38 PM

ABYUFAN wrote:
Sorry - B is for

http://www.cookeatfret.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/plated-candied-bacon.JPG" alt="" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%">

and nothng else!

LOL. I looked at this yesterday on my phone, and I was thinking "What in the world does teriyaki chicken have to do with the letter B?"

The increased resolution of the screen on my home computer has helped me figure it out though...

Sammich

11/8/2010, 1:53:22 AM

From the article citing the source of the $3000B number, the two who calculated this "estimate:"

Stiglitz and Linda Bilmes, who also served as an economic adviser under Clinton

All you need to know to doubt whether that number is worth the paper it was printed on. But maybe that's unfair, it is perhaps a distant possibility that their numbers aren't unfairly biased in any way or that they're actually competent as economists.

BoiseBYU

11/8/2010, 5:28:09 AM

Sammich, the numbers are conservative by some accounts. According to a 2007 Congressional Budget Office report, the U.S. war in Iraq could cost us taxpayers a total of $1.9 trillion dollars by 2017 after we take into count the fact that there are huge interest costs as a result of the wars being paid for with borrowed money. By way of comparison, VIce President Cheney stated several weeks before the war commenced that it and a two year occupation of Iraq would cost approximately $100 billion.

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