[extropy-chat] War and technological progress

[Lee Corbin]

BillK writes

> I just looked at the Cost of War 
> <http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182> 
> figure: $421 billion and rising!  Over $6 billion of that came from my 
> state and over 5 million homes with renewable electricity could have 
> been built with that money.1  Instead of a preemptive war on a non 
> aggressor nation or a hype "War on Terror" or a "War on Drugs" lets have 
> a War on Aging and fund nano research to the tune of $40 billion (one 
> tenth the cost of the war) or so for starters.  

Another way to look at the facts is to say that the Defense Department
takes about 4% of GNP and entitlements about 10% of GNP. Sorry
I don't have links for that---but I believe that to be approximately
correct.

And of course, the so-called "aggressor war" is based upon the 
perception (rightly or wrongly) that after Al Qaeda wins in Iraq,
to the great glee of the half of America that is more scared of
the Bush and Christian agenda, then Al Qaeda will get a huge
surge of new recruits.  History loves a winner. And then we'll
see if the war just quietly goes away.

Lee