Dad gum WW2. The thing is just a monster, zillions of people, zillions of dollars and zillions of stories. It's just endless. This war in the Pacific is incomprehensible. The only way to make any sense of it is by looking at the numbers. The war cost $300 billion. The population of the country was 130 million. Figure half of them were taxpayers, then the war cost each taxpayer roughly $5,000 which is roughly equivalent to half a million today, i.e. the price of a house. I think my folks paid like $4,000 for their first house back in 1950.
B-29's had 4 engines each, each engine had 2 rows of cylinders, each row had 9 cylinders, each cylinder had two spark plugs. You send 500 planes on a trip to Tokyo, you're going to need to change all 72,000 spark plugs plus you're going to need another four million gallons of gasoline for your next attack. This is the modern day equivalent of an Egyptian pyramid.
By the standards of western civilization, the Japanese were deranged. However, apparently, for the most part, the Japanese actually believed the crazy shit Tojo foisted on them. We see the same thing with radical Islamists, ISIS, Nazis, and any number of other smaller cults. All it takes is control of the media and an obedient office of propaganda and you can get people to believe all kinds of shit.
There's gotta be something that can be done. Elon seems to be the only one with any clout who is fighting the tsunami of bullshit that is flowing out of Washington. Yes, I'm contributing my two cents, but given inflation two cents is worth less than zero. Oh, shit, now we've got a song:
Elvis Costello & the Attractions - Less Than Zero - 5/5/1978 - Capitol Theatre (Official)
So who's Oswald? Wikipedia knows:
The song expressed Costello's anger after seeing former British Union of Fascists leader Oswald Mosley interviewed on television, attempting to deny his racist past. In the liner notes to the Rhino edition of the album, Costello writes:
"Less Than Zero" was a song I had written after seeing the despicable Oswald Mosley being interviewed on BBC television. The former leader of the British Union of Fascists seemed unrepentant about his poisonous actions of the 1930s. The song was more of a slandering fantasy than a reasoned argument.
And here we are full circle.
3 comments:
WWII cost each US taxpayer about $5,000. That 1944 $5,000 is $87,233.30 in 2023.
500 planes going to Tokyo means 400 gallons of 100 octane avgas / plane / hour.
Lots of bullshit flowing, most of it not from Washington but the internet.
Fact check everything to sift out prejudice, opinions, and outright lies.
$5,000 in 1940 could buy 134 ounces of gold.
134 ounces of gold today would cost $250,000.
The government lies about inflation, just like they do about everything else.
If you tie inflation to gold you don't understand what inflation is about, how it affects normal people not gold speculators. How many people have to buy gold on a regular basis in their normal day to day. You can't determine inflation with one item, it's how much more everyday Joe has to spend for milk and bread and rent compared to back in the day... any day.
The government isn't the only one calculating inflation, I guess all those economists and financial institutions are in collusion to try to fool you. But you're to clever to be fooled by all those experts. Q would be so proud.
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