This is why class analysis is important. Iraq was a huge money sink for America. Trillions down the drain. But the elites still made a ton of money and they stuck the government (and Americans) with the bill. This is one of the contradictions of capital that production and extraction are social but profit is private. You went to Iraq to fight, kill, and die in groups but it's the profit is taken by the capitalists who only benefit from the war.
Cheaper for who? Sure its cheaper for workers or even for the government. But the workers are not in charge, and the government is run by different factions of capital that don't get along.
Of course I am agreeing with you that the costs are basically not quantifiable. So many people lost their lives and a whole region was destroyed. But some still made profit.
The kernel of truth to what he’s saying is that a lot of colonies where on paper economic losses for the colonizers. But the benefits of colonization were often more geo-political than economic, and also the economic benefits were often not as straight forwardly easy to calculate.
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This is why class analysis is important. Iraq was a huge money sink for America. Trillions down the drain. But the elites still made a ton of money and they stuck the government (and Americans) with the bill. This is one of the contradictions of capital that production and extraction are social but profit is private. You went to Iraq to fight, kill, and die in groups but it's the profit is taken by the capitalists who only benefit from the war.
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Cheaper for who? Sure its cheaper for workers or even for the government. But the workers are not in charge, and the government is run by different factions of capital that don't get along.
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Of course I am agreeing with you that the costs are basically not quantifiable. So many people lost their lives and a whole region was destroyed. But some still made profit.
The kernel of truth to what he’s saying is that a lot of colonies where on paper economic losses for the colonizers. But the benefits of colonization were often more geo-political than economic, and also the economic benefits were often not as straight forwardly easy to calculate.
Yeah that happens when you end up stealing everything not nailed down including tearing out the walls to strip the copper wiring.