Where do governments find the funds to sustain wars?

Question

How does society still function normally while billiions are spent on weapons, manpower, fuel etc......

Taxes is too simple a answer ! The amount spent daily cannot be recovered by taxes alone.

Answer 1

Taxes, taxes, and more taxes!

Answer 2

Initially they will probably borrow the money by issuing Gilts. They could also re-direct money that was intended for other purposes.
Eventually though, it will involve raising taxes and/or serious expenditure cutbacks.

Successive Governments, particularly this one, have increasingly cut back on expenditure on the Armed Forces since the second world war ended. It is tiny in terms of men and equipment compared with what it used to be.

When figures are bandied about regarding the costs incurred in fighting the Iraqi war, I become very sceptical. How do they arrive at their figures? When you are fighting a war, you should only take into account the additional costs, over and above what would have been incurred anyway during peacetime. During peacetime, the whole supporting infrastructure of the armed forces has to be maintained, salaries, wages, buildings, equipment, and the cost of ammunition used during training and manoeuvres. I think that their costings are probably total costs, rather than just the additional costs.

Answer 3

Have you seen all the things we have to pay for. This ends up in the government, including the large amount of tax we have to pay.

- Income Tax
- Inheritance Tax
- TV License, £100+ for watching a TV, this is well obvious.
- General Council Tax
- Weapons Trading, the main countries for weapons building and selling are the US, UK, China, and Russia. Alot of money is made through the selling of these weapons. The only reason the countries we fight have tanks and that is becuase the west sells it to them to make a profit.
- Road Tax
- VAT

Answer 4

The true answer is by using something called The National Debt. That is debt incurred by the central government of a country to its own people and institutions and also to overseas creditors. A government can borrow from the public by selling interest-bearing bonds, for example, or from abroad. Traditionally, a major cause of national debt was the cost of war.

The sites below give you a full account of it. I heard but don't know if it's true, that we have only recently finished paying for the Napoleonic Wars!

Answer 5

The age-old art of spending money one does not yet have.

The result is that the country goes further into debt. Debts that will be paid by future generations- through their taxes, and through their sweat. It's basically just not worrying about where exactly the cash will come from, because hey it won't be this administration that has to worry about that.
But certainly that kind of heavy debt may come back to haunt future generations.

Answer 6

they are funded by the world banks, They (Governments) borrow money into circulation secured against the tax revenues recieved from all of us. and we, as tax payers, have to repay, with interest. Problem is the interest has never been lent into circulation.

you wonder why the governments always get the money to fund wars? and why taxes always go up?

Answer 7

Remember the Iran - COntra Oliver North affair?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra

Basically the US was selling weapons to IRAN for cash thenusing the funds to fund the contras, a right wing paramilitary force in Nicaragua.
That's one way.

Another is to earn money from wars, say, by allocating contracts for reconstruction to your own companies who then feed back some of it to your economy via corporate taxes.

A more conventional way is to budget for it. The money just gets diverted say from something into feeding the army and its weapons. For example Israel planned to increase university tuition, cuts in stipends... But now prefers to run budget deficits I guess...
http://www.forward.com/articles/plan-to-pay-war-bills-exposes-israeli-cabinets-fis/

And this brings us to the last point, just run a budget deficit. Although that is only available to the US. Run a budget deficit, print bonds, and borrow money to finance it. That's exactly what is happening more and more today.

Answer 8

For many, many years the CIA has been running drugs out of Central America and laundering the money to fund black budget spending. This is a verifiable fact.

Answer 9

my main worry is how the UK funds all the military action now in place! and any other country doesn't concern me in the least.~it is said of course manufacturing armaments gives a lot of employment and brings in the revenue to sustain expenditure, I don't buy that, i feel it falls back on the taxpayer as per usual

Answer 10

If you live long enough to ask your great grandchildren, just as they start out their adult lives and are paying 75% of their wages in taxes, you'll get your answer.

They finance their war on the backs of our children, grandchldren, great grandchildren, etc.

Answer 11

Money doesn't matter when it comes to war. There's no point worrying about money if you may not be around to spend it.

Defence of the nation comes before money.