Spot on! The US did put the price tag on old stuff as if it were brand new.
"February 25, 2025. A groundbreaking study released today by Economists for Ukraine reveals that the actual value of U.S. aid to Ukraine is significantly lower than widely reported. Contrary to the U.S. government's estimate of more than $60 billion in military assistance, the study finds that the real value amounts to approximately $18.3 billion. The full report is available at https://econ4ua.org/aid-value."
Where can I find the used market for Stinger missiles?
Why wouldn’t they charge the “new” price for equipment. If they spent 200,000 to create each missile they sent, then they are worth 200,000. Why wouldn’t they charge the cost to replace the equipment?
If I donate a 25 year old beat-up toyota truck to a charity, and replace it with a 250k ferrarri, should I be able to write off 250k from my taxes for my charitable donation?
Used vehicles have their own market, old missiles do not.
And even in your own example you would be able to write off the value of the truck you donated so it doesn’t even make sense. Vehicles are a depreciating asset and a market for used vehicles exists. The price goes down because in most cases as the vehicle ages and becomes more worn the amount that someone is willing to pay for it also decreases.
Find me a secondary market for missiles.
Using your own example it would be like donating a 20yr old Lamborghini that was never driven and meticulously stored and maintained to the charity. There will be next to no examples of similar vehicles readily available on the open market and so the value may not have decreased at all, in the case of vehicles it probably would have risen.
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u/A_Lazko Mar 16 '25
Spot on! The US did put the price tag on old stuff as if it were brand new.
"February 25, 2025. A groundbreaking study released today by Economists for Ukraine reveals that the actual value of U.S. aid to Ukraine is significantly lower than widely reported. Contrary to the U.S. government's estimate of more than $60 billion in military assistance, the study finds that the real value amounts to approximately $18.3 billion. The full report is available at https://econ4ua.org/aid-value."