Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
The same taxpayers fund both destruction and reconstruction efforts.
In plain terms
Public money pays corporations to break things and fix them.
What can you take from it?
Recognize how public funds cycle through conflict industries.

Where it applies

  • government contracting
  • policy analysis
  • economic critique

Putting it to work

  • track public spending
  • examine defense contracts
  • question procurement processes

Questions to consider

  • How can public funds be protected from misuse?
  • Who benefits most from reconstruction spending?

Another view

The quote simplifies complex contracting arrangements.

More from Noam Chomsky

  1. To gain control over this resource, and have probably military bases there, is a tremendous achievement for world control. You read counter-arguments to this, …

    Permalink to quote #110
  2. In September [2002] the government announced the national security strategy. That is not completely without precedent, but it is quite new as a formulation of …

    Permalink to quote #112
  3. [Q: isn't there a certain calculus that someone who is sitting in the shoes of a Condoleezza Rice can make, that they're responsible for the best outcome for A…

    Permalink to quote #109

Related quotes

  1. On the level of political principle, the imposition of taxes and the expenditure of tax proceeds are governmental functions. We have established elaborate cons…

    Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman quote #2
  2. The only means which have been placed in my power of 'raising the wages of colliers' has been by endeavouring to beat down all those restrictions upon trade wh…

    William Ewart GladstoneWilliam Ewart Gladstone quote #10
  3. Every specific tax, as well as the nation's whole tax system, becomes self-defeating above a certain height of the rates.

    Ludwig von MisesLudwig von Mises quote #14