Re: Question about President's Social Security plan

From: tonyp (tonyp_at_world.std.com)
Date: 01/18/05 

Date: Tue, 18 Jan 2005 00:20:00 -0500

"Les Cargill" <lNOcargill@cfl.Arr.com> wrote

> Gogarty wrote:
> > ... But all military investment is money down a rat hole
> > with no return on investment whatever.
>
> There is significant return on this investment. It's not
> expressible in income statements and balance sheets, but
> it exists.

Once again I feel an urge to pedantry. Insurance premiums are not
"investments". Military expenditure is insurance. It is insurance for "our
way of life". If you own a big, expensive house, you spend more to insure
it -- to protect your investment. The house is the investment, the
insurance premiums are one of the expenses you incur for owning it.
Likewise, one of the costs of doing business, if you have a world-dominating
economy, is the trouble and expense of insuring it by force of arms.
Nations which have much smaller economic interests to defend spend much less
on insurance -- just as someone who lives in a hovel spends less on premiums
than someone who lives in a McMansion.

-- TP

Quantcast