This level of $325 billion happens to be the level of funding for the US military in 1992, when Bill Clinton succeeded George Bush (senior) as the first Gulf War came to a close, and we were engaged as an Middle East MP force over Saddam.
According to US government inflation statistics this would be equivalent in today's terms to about $500 billion.
Reducing our costs by $400 billion would enable us to almost pay the interest costs of our current debt for the year.
Some would say this money keeps troops employed. Great. What a job. If the reduction in debt by $400 billion was proportionally applied to troop levels from our current total force of 1.4 million actives, this would be equivalent to 800,000 personnel. $400 billion over 800,000 FTEs is $500,000 per head.
Ask your local soldier: would they prefer their current annual salary or $500,000 per year (roughly the same as average Goldman Sachs bonuses)?
The math is astounding. We could send every downsized troop to a 4-year university for 25% of the savings. We could use another 25% to hire hundreds of thousands of teachers. Fix infrastructure. Invest in renewable energy. Modernize our grid. Invest in public rail transit. Or pay down the debt.
The opportunity cost scenarios are many, political willpower though, much less evident. While I hope it could happen, I prefer to invest time and energy hedging for the alternate scenario.
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