For those of you who don't get the reference, we've spent about $400 billion on the war with and reconstruction of Iraq.
A recent CNN article mentioned that the same amount could be spent to build 35,000 schools in America.
In economics, there is a concept known as opportunity cost. This concept is used to measure how reasonable an expense is with reference to all the other things you could buy with the same amount of money.
My questions to all of you are... if you support the continued operations in Iraq, then why is it worth the $400 billion we've spent and the next several hundred billion we're likely to spend in the coming years, and why shouldn't we be spending it on our own country? Also, why isn't it better to let our citizens keep that money to spend for themselves? Aren't the opportunity costs vast enough to warrant an end to this?
These questions are obviously aimed at those of you who still support this operation and the proposed troop increases. If you consider yourself a conservative, then how do you justify the massive costs of this? Isn't this equivalent to the big government schemes you dislike by liberals?
Being a Libertarian, I prefer to minimize government, but even opening up the option to bigger government, at least the liberals seem to prefer spending big bucks on America instead of Iraq. If you consider yourself patriotic, shouldn't America come first? If the poverty of Iraq concerns you, shouldn't the poverty here be even more compelling of an issue?
Whatever the case, I put America first, and I support withdrawing from Iraq as soon as possible. I'd prefer the government to get smaller, but even if it doesn't, we should at least be spending the money here instead of in a country that mostly seems to not even appreciate our help.
Ok, rant over... What do you guys think?
A recent CNN article mentioned that the same amount could be spent to build 35,000 schools in America.
In economics, there is a concept known as opportunity cost. This concept is used to measure how reasonable an expense is with reference to all the other things you could buy with the same amount of money.
My questions to all of you are... if you support the continued operations in Iraq, then why is it worth the $400 billion we've spent and the next several hundred billion we're likely to spend in the coming years, and why shouldn't we be spending it on our own country? Also, why isn't it better to let our citizens keep that money to spend for themselves? Aren't the opportunity costs vast enough to warrant an end to this?
These questions are obviously aimed at those of you who still support this operation and the proposed troop increases. If you consider yourself a conservative, then how do you justify the massive costs of this? Isn't this equivalent to the big government schemes you dislike by liberals?
Being a Libertarian, I prefer to minimize government, but even opening up the option to bigger government, at least the liberals seem to prefer spending big bucks on America instead of Iraq. If you consider yourself patriotic, shouldn't America come first? If the poverty of Iraq concerns you, shouldn't the poverty here be even more compelling of an issue?
Whatever the case, I put America first, and I support withdrawing from Iraq as soon as possible. I'd prefer the government to get smaller, but even if it doesn't, we should at least be spending the money here instead of in a country that mostly seems to not even appreciate our help.
Ok, rant over... What do you guys think?