I really get sick and tired of hearing from the ignorant left about how X number of innocent civilians have died in this or that conflict.
Yeah, guess what, it's ain't like the rosy suburbs you spoiled brat sociology majoring freaks grew up in where nothing bad happened. The real world has bad things happening to good people.
Furthermore, as an indirect measure as to just how much care the US military takes in making sure it doesn't needlessly kill civilians or destroy non-military targets, I will once again point out that Afghanistan along with Iraq have been enjoying better economic standards of living since we went in. Amazing how under war/invasion/occupation/whatever you want to consider it, economies tend to grow when the US military is there lobbing missles around.
Does this include the poppy production?
ReplyDeleteNo, as GDP measures only what is NOT in the black market.
ReplyDeleteIf that was considered, I'm sure it would be higher. That ebing said, a secondary effect of poppy production could spill over into the legal markets.
My understanding of the majority of the Afghan economy is that much of it revolves around small markets. People importing goods from neighboring countries, cheap goods from Asia and Turkey, and selling them on the open market in towns and villages. My guess is that much of this goes untaxed and unreported.
ReplyDeleteI would guess that the reported stuff is American/European-backed corporations that are doing work there. Building new buildings, reopening airports, working on the power grid, etc.
For certain, but the IMF came out with this data and they are estimates, so I'm guess they are trying their best to account for that.
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