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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: PWhat if They Threw a War... - (nf)
Message-ID: <389@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Nov-83 12:51:28 EST
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.389
Posted: Tue Nov 29 12:51:28 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Dec-83 03:44:20 EST
References: <1165@pur-ee.UUCP>
Organization: Bell Labs, Piscataway
Lines: 54

I would invite the person who is worried about all
"those resources" being tied up in silos to go back
to Economics 101.  If all that money is tied up in
silos, then I had better get out my pickaxe and go digging.
Dummies, the money spent on ANY project, be it military,
Social, or Private goes out to the working stiffs.  For
instance, for the sake of argument, let us imagine that
I am a salesman for the XYZ Widget Company.  My company
makes a Widget that is used in a rocket.  I hear that the
rocket maker needs some good widgets at a good price.
Me, being a good salesman, get on a plane and fly to
the rocket makers plant (cost for planefare, parking, car
rental, meals, motel, and tips say $489.00).  I get the
contract to provide the widgets.  OK, where does the $489.00
come from to pay for my trip?  From the profits of the contract.

Now, where did the 489.00 go?  To airline workers, car rental workers,
resturant workers, motel workers, and others.  Multiply this
scenario by the number of salesmen alone and you see that a
lot of what is called "tied up money" is not that at all.
Again, multiply the wages received by the workers at the Widget
plant by the number of workers receiving a wage and the money
from the contract spreads even further.  Now throw in the use of
those wages to purchase goods and services, and the wave of
money spreads even further afield.  Large sums of money spent
on huge programs probably benefit more people than a direct
payment to an individual.  The cost of doing something is not
lost.  We may have spent a billion dollars to send a man to
the moon, but did we send the money too?  Of course not.  It
was spent right here in the economy through the purchase of
goods and services down to the lowest level.

As another example, look at Huntsville, Alabama.  Since the slowdown
in the space program, the town has shrunk.  Businesses have closed,
people have moved away, and the economics of the area have slowed.
I am talking about everything that was even slightly associated
with the area, such as, resturants, car dealerships, motels, real
estate, and on and on.  Tax revenues dropped, city services cut
back, schools suffered, and too many things to list.  All of this
because a few knot-headed politicians had it in their heads that
the money actually went to the moon and not to the people.  Even
the profits made by the companies involved in the space program
was sent out to their shareholders who, in turn, bought goods
and services with that money.  Some of the largest shareholders
in these corporations were colleges and universities.  

Please don't cry about the money being spent and sitting in the
ground.  Whatever is in those silos represents literally hundreds
of thousands of jobs.  Jobs from waitresses to airline pilots,
janitors to computer scientists, hotel maids to bartenders.  The
projects this country undertakes are the mainstream of our economy.
And, don't bring up the morality of what is in those silos.  That's
for religion 101, a different net group.