@Vitaliy
Those buildings and services are all outside the US! Our wars are good for Iraq's economy but not ours.
what I'm saying is those contracts are corporate welfare, with no material benefit to the average person, it's merely transferring the wealth of American citizens to corporations via taxation. That's not capitalism. It's not the same as investing in infrastructure -- such as new roads and rail lines or new schools, or more police for security or exchange of capital for goods such as autos and TV's -- which improve standards of living. Even the oil barrel example you give, gas prices are higher than ever. You cannot even say the wars did much for share prices as they were flatline up until about two years ago. Worst of all, a lot of war was financed by China, so not only did we get nothing out of it, but it has put us deeper into debt, as your charts above reflect.

In fact the American have been made to pay for the war and petrol industries. The money goes somewhere but not to the country but to those companies that are usually very close to the politician. Every-time somebody will talk about green energy, somebody will tell him that it is not cost effective etc... but imagine if all the money that went into the Iraq war had been used in sun, wind, geo thermal etc where would America be. How many jobs and resources would have been kept in the country. I would like someone to tell me how a war can be more cost effective than renewable energy.

The second thing is about the people themself. Like in all empires the people always are driven by pride. From the eqyptian to the Romans, I am sure if you made a poll during those time 9 out of 10 people would have told you that their empire would still exist until now. Unfortunately people don't think but are driven by emotion. If all American divided their car centimeter cube by two how much money their country would save. Does people need 3000/4000 cc cars to drive most of the time alone or two person. My 1500cc car is enough to drive 4 people without any problem. This is only one example. Living in a small country (ex british and french colony) I think like this, perhaps if I was born in the most powerful country in the world I would have thought differently.

Now what I a bit afraid is that tomorrow the American will go back to the Neo conservative bush adminitration because they will feel that the democrats have failed economic wise. The same conservative that brought their country to were it is now with those costly wars. They will tell that the problem is on those heath care and thigs like that so that they can feed their petrol and war industry friend.

@Vitaliy
What profits did american companies make? You mean from weapons sales and outfits like Blackwater? I don't see those as profits, it's paid for by tax payers and there's no material benefit on the back end, unlike purchasing a car or appliance. Military spending is corporate welfare. And soldier are nothing more than a government worker, and in this instance, we'll be paying costly medical benefits for generations. I've never understood the "War is profitable" paradigm. It's even been proven that all the imperialism and colonial adventures of the British Empire wherein they looted and robbed countless countries of treasure was a net loss financially. War ain't cheap.

I know,
Lets make a movie!

Can anybody here write?

Capitalism (political) is bankrupt!?

I don't know if I would call this a "Comedy".

The biggest useless drain is the Treasury department including interest on debt.

There was a short period when in USA the federal goverment issued money without having to pay interest to banks.

The Secret of Oz


It's not what backs the money, it's who controls its quantity.

>Shut down NASA, clearly they are spending too much money "out there"

Unfortunately this is very bad idea.
Impact of such "savings" will result in loss that is times higher than savings themselfes.
World is not a fairy tale. If you can't defend resources and control other countries who are forced to sell them at discounted prices someone will do the same and you'll be just another poor coutry.

yup. and the scariest thing is that I personally can do pretty much nothing about it. (besides going off the power grid, growing a giant garden, and buying a couple Kalashnikovs to fend of the feds/hungry rednecks) :-)

@B3Guy

They are in zugzwang.
Any action is worse than no action.
Do significant spending cuts and you are fucked. Plus it won't help with debt.
Borrow more money and you'll be fucked anyway, as all you buy is small extra time.