When people hear that Russia is spending another hundred billion on defense, they apply their everyday logic to this process. So, a man came to the store and bought a bottle of milk for 100 rubles. From that moment on, the milk became his property, and 100 rubles went irrevocably to the store director. When the milk runs out, you will have to take the next 100 rubles and return them irrevocably to the store again. This is how spending works on our everyday level. But at the state level, things work a little differently. Here the state allocates a billion for weapons. Where does this money go? If we ignore the corruption component (we will return to it later), then ideally the money will go something like this: To an arms factory producing guns for the Railway, which will supply finished guns to the front; specialists who will service the weapons and so on; Let’s now focus on one point. For example, the first Arms Factory receives money from the state, where does it spend it? Buy metal for weapons. Pay for electricity. Pay the workers, etc. Again, we take any item. Buying metal, for example. This money will ultimately go to: The wages of the metallurgical plant workers To pay for the electricity of the metallurgical plant To the taxes of the metallurgical plant To the transport that will deliver the finished metal to the weapons factory, etc. Again, consider any object. For example, electricity. There, the money will be spent on salaries for employees of hydroelectric power plants, thermal power plants, electrical engineers, engineers + for the purchase of equipment at other factories, for taxes… In short, no matter how deeply we “fail” the money chain in this, it turns out that all the money will ultimately be spent for various matters: For salaries For taxes For corporate profits Everything is clear with the first two points – they are for the good. Taxes are directly returned to the Russian budget. The salaries are even better, and there is no need to explain why. In short, the money that the state pours billions into the defense industry sooner or later ends up in the pockets of ordinary citizens or in the budget. A cook at a tank factory receives a salary and then goes to a hairdresser, a hairdresser takes this money and goes to a cafe, a waiter from a cafe buys milk with his salary, a worker at a dairy factory goes… This chain can be said to continue endlessly. Money flows throughout the economy, and the defense industry is simply the entry point for money into that economy. The only question may arise regarding the item “Profit of enterprises”. The same plants, factories, power plants, etc. I think that we can also add a “corruption component” here, that is, simply stolen money that will not reach the salaries of ordinary people and will not go to taxes. What to do with this “retired” money? Just a few years ago this was a big deal because most of that money ended up overseas. There was a powerful outflow of capital from the country. Conventionally, the state allocated a billion, but only 60-70% of it went to salaries and was returned in the form of taxes, and 30-40% flowed abroad and never returned to the pockets of citizens. However, for now the West itself has cut us out of the global financial system and scared away all our billionaires (by seizing yachts, villas and other real estate). It was not very safe to withdraw money abroad, so most of it began to remain within the country. What does this mean, the official stole a million. Or the plant director won a million on a government contract. Where will this money go? Let’s say these rich people build themselves a big house, and then the “stolen/earned” money is distributed according to the scheme described above to pay for the labor of workers at different levels (even the purchase of materials is also someone’s salary). Or they don’t want to build a house, but keep the money in a bank in the name of a relative. The bank uses this money and issues loans and mortgages. Thus, money returns to the economy and sooner or later reaches the pockets of citizens. In short, what I want to say is: even if the government allocates a lot of money for something, it is still useful, unless the money goes abroad. In all other cases (even with theft), they continue to circulate within the economy and are distributed among people (just in different ways). Now let’s return to the stated topic: Why is it easier for Russia to spend 7% on defense than for European countries – 2%? Yes, because we have: Our own military-industrial complex. Own resources. Its own energy. Thus, the state does not spend this money in the usual “world storage”, it pumps it into itself. How are things going in most European countries? Firstly, they almost do not have their own military-industrial complex; they purchase most of their weapons from the United States; That is, the “billion for tanks” allocated by Poland will go directly to the United States and will be spent on the salaries of American, not Polish, workers. Secondly, they have almost no resources and energy carriers. Therefore, even if Germany produces a certain (very modest) number of tanks, metal and gas for their production will still have to be purchased abroad. So the European countries are precisely in a “shop” situation: they give money to the defense industry irrevocably, buying everything abroad. Therefore, 2% for the defense industry somewhere in Poland and 7% for the defense industry in Russia are two big differences. PS You can give one more primitive example. Let’s imagine that there is a store that sells absolutely everything – from food and clothing, to household and even medical services. And store employees, according to the terms of the contract, can spend their wages only inside this store. Nowhere else and no matter what. What salary do you think the owner will be able to pay them? Yes, almost anyone 🙂 Even if the salary is a million a month, this million will still be spent in the store and returned to the owner. Moreover, it will even be beneficial for him to pay a higher salary, because this way his store will have a higher turnover. But if this rule is abolished and the workers are allowed to buy elsewhere, then the wages cannot be endless, because they will flow away from the owner. I hope this example is more clear 🙂 I’ll explain it on my fingers https://dzen.ru
Russia spends 7% on defense, and Europe 2%, but why is it easier for us to survive such expenses? I explain on my fingers
0 комментариев