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Originally Posted by jayeff
It has nothing whatever to do with socialism vs individualism: capitalism is as much a form of collectivism as socialism is. Nor is there anything magical about military spending. Government spending per se is what has the impact, more than what the money is spent on, although if you wanted to dig deeper, you would find that tax dollars spent on the military benefit the economy far less than tax dollars spent on welfare.
In any case, I'm curious how you find the whole concept of arguably unnecessary government spending compatible with your claims to be a libertarian and wanting to hang on to the money you have earned. I get the impression of smugness rather than political conviction.
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I never said I agreed with the spending. I hate big government spending, am against the war, and against a lot of the ridiculous spending we have.
I disagree with welfare spending benefitting military spending as a boost to our economy. One is a way of giving your citizens money that is actually creating something and making your society stronger by not only building something, but creating skill sets that the society can adapt to. With welfare, you are giving out money and getting nothing in return.
For instance, you have $10,000. Do you give it to a guy and tell him here, this is your welfare. He doesn't learn anything from it, doesn't gain skills, doesn't do anything. Or do you take that $10,000, provide him with a job where he helps make a company better and bigger, all the while earning himself a set of skills that will benefit him in life. I can't fathom how you could argue welfare spending is better for a society than giving them jobs.
In any case, I never advocated government spending. I am simply pointing out what the US economy has been dependant on for a long time. It is "the easy way out" I guess for many Presidents. I think it's a bad way to do it, but it's unfortunately where we are at.