[extropy-chat] Iraq and legality again

[Mike Lorrey]

--- c c <beb_cc at yahoo.com> wrote:

> What worries me isn't so much the minor issue of the legality of the
> war, but, rather, the financial cost (putting aside for brevity's
> sake here the human cost).
>  Can we afford to pay for the Iraq and other wars? Yes. Can we pay
> for the wars (we can be sure the coming decades will see America &
> its allies involved in other theaters of wars besides the ones it now
> is engaged in) and ensure domestic tranquility while social programs
> are eroded, as almost certainly the programs will be? Economists are
> not magicians.

It would be good to see social programs eroded if not ended. Wars
eventually end. Social parasites only reproduce and multiply.

>  
> I don't accept all the self-pitying talk concerning America being as
> a modern day Roman Empire, with illegal immigrant barbarians invading
> from the south. Nevertheless, could America spend itself to a bad end
> as the Soviets did in 1991?

Only if there arises a nation that builds a more productive, dynamic
economy. The US and the USSR were roughly of similar population, and we
both outspent AND out developed them (almost all of their technological
advancements came from espionage against the US). China, being 4 times
larger in population, has the human potential, but may not have the
resource potential. It is already at the limits of its fresh water
capacity for its current farming technology.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


		
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