8.9k upvotes. If there was ever a comment that convinced me Reddit is astroturfed / an op, this is it. Because they are objectively wrong. Or at least intentionally misleading.

They’re focusing on the fact that the valuation equipment changed and ignoring what that actually means. Sure, by itself it doesn’t affect US taxpayers. But the point is, the military says they overvalued it by $2, so that allows them to send $2 billion more worth of equipment. That’s additional stocks of weapons that ostensibly have to be replaced, which is paid for by tax dollars.

And while it’s not provably corrupt, it strains credulity to think this was not done in order to ship more weapons. Revaluations of this kind are much much more likely because someone wants it revalued, i.e. corruption.

88 name

libs will write this then turn around and write an even longer post about how the war "costs us nothing" because the US is sending old stock that was slated to be destroyed anyway, or because all the weapon manufacturing money stays in the US, or whatever the cope of the day is

This doesn't affect your taxes (except for $2bn more being spent on fuelling pointless war instead of healthcare).

"we" this "we" that...

There is no "we" you stupid servile cuck, the american elite do whatever they want whether you like it or not. No room for your input.

US government makes a huge "mistake" costing literally $2 billion extra dollars of their funding, which comes from taxpayer money.

Reddit: "NOOOOO THIS ISNT A MISTAKE, THIS DOESNT AFFECT YOUR TAX DOLLARS!"

How can someone say that the Pentagon is doing "back of the envelope math" for billions of dollars of military ordinance and not get called out for COMPLETE GIBBERING INSANITY

These idiots don't remember Rumsfeld reiterating on Sept 10, 2001 (yes) that the military had approximately 2 TRILLION in 'accounting irregularities'

This isn't new, and covering for the MIC in such a manner is naive at best

In order to correctly finish the analogy here, the place you donate to would have to call back and demand another $2,000 car from you to cover the discrepancy, and you'd have to comply.

"I'm not owned!!! I'm not owned!!!" 🌽

Don't worry it will go "poof" once in Ukraine, both literally and figuratively

I think the key point here is depreciation, the dollar amount of aid they’re sending is based on the current book value of equipment. I was able to find some documentation listing the depreciation method the DoD uses and the useful lives of various asset classes here: https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/documents/fmr/archive/04arch/04_06_Jun08.pdf

They use straight line depreciation or a special “activity based” method for some specific equipment so the useful life of say, a stinger missile, would be either 5 or 10 years based on the tables there. That $100k missile could be listed on the books as only $40k three years after purchase or even $0 if it’s older than five years. I can only assume the military uses such an aggressive depreciation method to justify constant funding to feed the MIC by replacing “outdated” tech and selling it off/giving it to allies. I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that a rifle is suddenly obsolete and worth nothing after sitting in an armory for 5 years but that’s how they put it on the books 🤷‍♂️

This might be a dumb question, but what is the actual point of the government lying about something to claim reduced costs? I remember having this thought when the Biden admin held that press conference to announce that the Gaza aid pier had actually cost $200 million and not $300 million. Once numbers get unfathomly large my mind more or less equates them, and it's not like I have any intuition that makes it so that I can read that an aid pier costs $200 million and think "wow, what a steal". Who are the citizens that feel good when hearing this bullshit about we actually spent this inconcievably large number and not that slightly bigger inconceivably large number? Who is impressed by this press conference?

Hollywood too.

Jesus fucking Christ lmao