Re: AMERICANS

From: "John Atkinson" <johnmatkinson@yahoo.com>

> 1)So tell me, when did Britain finish paying off their
> debt?  AFAIK, the only nation that payed back what
> they owed us from WWII was Finland.  They payed for
> their Brewster Buffaloes in full.

It happened under Thatcher, can't tell you exactly when.

The sudden stoppage of the drain of foreign currency had
a very significant positive impact on the UK economy though.

You must remember that the UK pissed away all the national
treasure it had accumulated since about 1815 on World Wars 1
and 2. In 1938, something like 12% of the US's economy was
owned by UK shareholders. By mid 1941, when Lend-Lease
started, it was less than 0.001%, the rest had had to be
sold and used to buy US goods to qualify for Lend-Lease.*
(note also that the US economy of 1938 was a mere shadow
of the size it was in 1945).

> 2)Ummm. . . how much do you value the US casualties
> lost, and when are you delivering the cash?

Good question. I don't know the answer, John. We in Oz
try to pay what we can - as we did in Korea, in Vietnam,
in the Gulf, and as we're doing in Afghanistan. Not in 
money, but blood.

But every time a US multi-billion-dollar agribusiness or
industrial conglomerate gets another transfusion of cash
from the US taxpayer solely to make bigger profits, and
incidentally to damage our economy, the currency gets...
devalued. Not by us, but by the USA. It's not an infinite 
resource. But it *is* constantly being replenished by
people like yourself, in Kosovo, in Afganistan, etc etc.
If I were you, I'd try and make sure some of the fatcats
weren't devaluing your efforts, and pissing off your
allies.

*One of the most galling things the UK had to endure was
the surprise inspections of the US congressional committees
who were there to make sure that the UK was truly Bankrupt,
not keeping any US assets back that might have been sold.