Monday, August 20, 2012

USA TODAY Editors Think That War is Good for the Economy

Richard Kogan, senior fellow at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, says defense cutbacks hurt the economy. “When the economy is operating below capacity, more spending is good and less spending slows it down,” he says.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/story/2012-07-02/defense-spending-cuts-affect-economy/56016706/1?csp=ip
Factual guidance for USA TODAY editors:  1) Military is an expense; 2) expense is expensive; 3) expense is not revenue.

In its print version, USA TODAY editors headlined this article with this tidbit: “Defense cutbacks hinder economy: Less spending for war saps growth”.

The idea that war brings prosperity is a cosmic expansion of the “broken window fallacy“. It is also a cosmic lie.

I can understand the average person on the street not understanding the concept, but the supposedly educated editors at one of the world’s largest newspapers should know better. Here they expose either their phenomenal ignorance of basic economics, or their sycophantic devotion to The Lie.

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