*Wars are bad* Jeff, re //Most of the junk floating around up there was bought and paid for by the good old US Taxpayer. The money is already circulating around the economy. Replacements will just increase that.//
I have to bite on that one. It implies there is no economic loss because the money is circulating around the economy. This is similar to the idea that wars are economically productive. If you believe that, try blowing up your house and a couple of your children and see how economically productive it seems.
The money circulating stays the same, even if we all start digging holes and filling them in again. That doesn't mean we are as economically well off as we were when producing useful things.
Dead satellites in space are like refilled holes in the ground. Useless and economically destructive. If we do enough of them, the world will be starving.
The USA taxpayer can act as a host to parasites launching dead satellites into space only so long as other countries have even bigger parasites living off the host bodies [the productive citizens]. When other countries get rid of their parasites, they'll go ahead of the USA.
Unless something is returning profit in big heaps to somebody, the activity was a loss in opportunity cost terms. Even if it makes a bit of profit, it is still a loss overall in opportunity cost terms. Investors instinctively know to seek the highest return and wish they had owned Qualcomm the past month or two, if not the past 8 years. They know that high returns are the best use of money.
They know that satellites launched by Zenits into the Siberian wilderness is NOT a good use of money.
Money is not wealth. Production is wealth. The USA could double the amount of money circulating and do it tomorrow, but it wouldn't increase the wealth of the USA. It will, however, increase MY wealth, because I have borrowed US$ knowing that the government will indeed go on increasing the amount of money they print, because who can resist the magic money tree which grows more whenever you want a bit and that will push up the stockmarket and devalue the debt I have.
The New Paradigm cunningly makes the lenders think that they are getting a decent return because they are earning 5% on their money and inflation is near zero.
Mqurice |
