Posted by Mikko on January 31, 2002 at 07:02:33:
In Reply to: The above post shows that philosophy has no importance posted by Diarmuid on January 30, 2002 at 11:23:28:
:If he really cared about money more than he hates poor people, he will, before mentioning anything else, condemn the waste of taxpayer money on building and maintaining useless obsolete weapons. Obsolete military spending is always a much bigger sum than the tiny pittance the USA spends on welfare. Most objectivists fail to even mention this, even over the course of a 500,000 word website.
--The United States chose to build 3 "Seawolf" - class nuclear submarines, two has been already finished and one is being constructed. They are rather obsolete, designed for fighting against Soviet subs in deeper waters in oceans, whereas the current needs for new subs are more for subs more suited for littoral (coastal) water operations. (The USN already has an extensive fleet of nuclear submarines for deeper water operations)
The building costs of the subs are about $13 billion, plus operating costs, both material and human resources. I remember that the costs could've been cut down to at least half by choosing alternative, possible more viable options.
I wonder if $6.5+ billion could've been used in a way that would've actually benefitted someone? And this is just one single situation.