A Little Something I Learned the Other Day.

[wordweaver5]

in the course of surfing idly yesterday i found something called 'what would $611 buy?'  http://boston.com/news/nation/gallery/251007war_costs


the $611 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world's poor for seven years

At published rates for this year, $611 billion translates into almost 14 million free rides for a year at Harvard University.

Tuition and fees at the University of Massachusetts-Boston could be paid for over 53 million years.

With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over.

TheBudgetGraph.com estimates that converting the 136,568,083 registered cars in the United States to ethanol (conversion kits at $500) would cost $68.2 billion.

US drivers consume approximately 384.7 million gallons of gasoline a day. Retail prices averaged $3.00 a gallon in early November. Breaking it down, $611 billion could buy gasoline for everybody in the United States, for about 530 days.

[East Coast Hustle]

ethanol is bad.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

With $611 billion, you could convert all cars in America to run on ethanol nine times over.

Why the fuck would I want to do that?

[B_M_W]

You could turn the whole of the great plains and midwest and any arable land you could find into ethanol production and you know what would likely happen?

You'd run out of water and all your soil would be in either one of two places: the Atlantic or the Pacific.

[Nast]

But I'm just saying that on principle, there's a lot more that someone can do with 500 billion.

Yep.  Secret bases under volcanoes.  DO NEVER FUCKING TEST!

MOBILE AUTOMATON JESUS: Let nuclear fallout convert you!

[The Good Reverend Roger]

You could turn the whole of the great plains and midwest and any arable land you could find into ethanol production and you know what would likely happen?

You'd run out of water and all your soil would be in either one of two places: the Atlantic or the Pacific.

Plus you get more than a hundred gallons of high-alkaline water for every gallon of ethanol.

Not to mention you can't really grow enough corn.  Besides, I need to eat.  If I can't eat regular food, I'll just have to eat you bastards.

And you don't want that, do you?

[Xooxe]

Do you know how much it has cost to implement the Iraq War?  $500 Billion.  Lotta money right?  Yep.

Guess what, when all is said and done, that will be MUCH less than half of what the war will really cost.

What do you think is going to happen IF and when the soldiers come back?  Do you think they are all going to just integrate back into society like nothing ever happened?  That it will all be Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy? 

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

[AFK]

Do you know how much it has cost to implement the Iraq War?  $500 Billion.  Lotta money right?  Yep.

Guess what, when all is said and done, that will be MUCH less than half of what the war will really cost.

What do you think is going to happen IF and when the soldiers come back?  Do you think they are all going to just integrate back into society like nothing ever happened?  That it will all be Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy? 

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

   

[Random Probability]

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

Kill yourself.

Seriously.

[Cainad (dec.)]

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

Kill yourself.

Seriously.

Well, it is. Methinks if he'd switched the second and third sentences, it would be interpreted differently.

[AFK]

I have no idea what happened but I think I may need to call in an Orbital Bombardment. 

[Xooxe]

Heh. No moral stance intended.

[Pope Lecherous]

Shit costs money.  If we spent all that money for the "noble causes" abroad everybody would complain about problems we need to take care of in America.  If we took care of those problems people would complain about other shit that is "more" important.  People are just bitches.

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

You are a dumbass for more than the obvious reason in your post.  People need shit just as much as other people produce shit.  Thats what an economy is.  People need shit, they buy things that other people make.  If you dont make goods or offer services you are useless.  Dead people cannot generate more money than a living person that could be put to work or provide entertainment.  Or a wounded soldier can train other soldiers or some shit you are an ass.

Money is important, but why do you value it so much?

[Xooxe]

  As I said, no moral connotations were inserted other than your own.

You're right though, about survivors being of use to society when they return. I was talking about medical costs.

[Cainad (dec.)]

Shit costs money.  If we spent all that money for the "noble causes" abroad everybody would complain about problems we need to take care of in America.  If we took care of those problems people would complain about other shit that is "more" important.  People are just bitches.

The soldiers which have been coming back even since day one are incurring huge costs for medical treatment. As far as I know, the American military is preventing the death of it's soldiers more than ever before due to technological advances in body armour and on-the-field medical treatment such as new agents which can instantly clot blood, preventing many fatal wounds. It's much cheaper to bring someone back in a body-bag.

You are a dumbass for more than the obvious reason in your post.  People need shit just as much as other people produce shit.  Thats what an economy is.  People need shit, they buy things that other people make.  If you dont make goods or offer services you are useless.  Dead people cannot generate more money than a living person that could be put to work or provide entertainment.  Or a wounded soldier can train other soldiers or some shit you are an ass.

Money is important, but why do you value it so much?

A wounded soldier has his treatment covered by the military, and if he's lucky he also receives disability payments (assuming he's wounded beyond full recovery, which happens disturbingly often). You obviously don't understand how the military works; a front-line soldier does not stay on as a trainer for other soldiers, he just gets a medical discharge. Only high-ranking officers have a good chance of staying on the military payroll after they cease to be deployable. It's a good thing that the military keeps wounded soldiers alive as much as possible, but it also means that war is more expensive than in the days when the medic's tent contained a couple of cots and a bone saw. Money matters because if our national debt gets too deep, the government may end up repudiating it. That would be a really bad thing.

Some nitwit(s) decided to try and enter Iraq on the cheap, and it's just cost us more in the long run. Same thing happens when you pay for a cheap-ass plumbing fix: you pay for the whole damn bathroom floor once it starts to rot.