"Real" Military Spending

[Max Sawicky]

All public sector output is valued at cost because
there is no market test for any of it that can be
measured with prices.  There are price deflators
for the inputs, but if you can use the same materials
to make a bomb that blows up 200 people instead of
one hundred, there is no measurement of this in
the spending numbers.   Hence a 'constant dollar'
measurement is inherently conservative in terms
of destructive power, which is advancing all the time.

mbs

Accepting for the moment, the "success" of bombing, I have a question
regarding economic accounting for military spending. IIRC, military spending
is valued at input prices.  But if R&D makes bombs and other weapons
"smarter" or more effectively destructive shouldn't the accounting of
spending be adjusted accordingly.

Is it possible that "real effective destructive index" of military spending
(and stocks) would show different levels and trends?

Of course, a real security product would be increased by destroying many
weapons.

Stuart Elliott
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