Michael Kotlyarsky Government spending doesn't increase wealth on...
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Michael Kotlyarsky Government spending doesn't increase wealth on net, unless you think government bureaucrats are better at picking investments than entrepreneurs. All tax dollars spent by the government are extracted from Russian citizens either via direct taxation or indirect taxation by inflating the money supply. The money that pays a soldier, if left in the hands of the taxpayer would have instead been spent on some good of the taxpayer's choosing. Maybe they would've paid a carpenter to build an addition on their house, or a maybe they would have bought a new car, or maybe they would have invested in a friend's new business. The money that would've enriched a carpenter, autoworker, or entrepreneurs instead enriches soldiers / weapons manufacturers. Moreover, war typically causes the deaths of thousands (millions?) of citizens in their prime productive years, and massive destruction of expensive capital goods (roads, factory buildings, tanks, ships, fuel pipes, oil refineries, etc). War typically causes a massive _destruction_ of wealth on all sides of the conflict.