Straight thoughts 84

December 14th, 2001

This week's "security" budget included 1.2 billion dollars for actual military purposes in the next 5 years. In a defence budget of over 11 billion, that represents an increase of 2% per year. Once you deduct the inflation rate, it denotes a very meagre effort in an area that has seen its budget eroded by 30% in real terms since 1993 (NP Dec. 12)

If your house needed an upgrade in security, would you plan to spend an extra 1% per year?

In addition, will our military be subject to further reductions if the inflation rate shoots up or the value of our money drops?

In critical areas of government, such as defence, it would be safer to plan in terms of real assets, such as number of men, tanks, ships and planes.