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To: USA-FRANCE; SmokingJoe; gleeaikin
SmokingJoe: “Now why don’t we talk about the hundreds of Billions probably Trillions of dollars (in today’s money) that America has poured into Euro after WW II,"

Marshall Plan per country, 1948 - 1952:

In 1948 dollars, the total Marshall Plan came to about $13.3 billion, which you might argue is only $173 billion in today's inflated money.
However, in terms of the relative national efforts required for the US to provide $13.3 billion in 1948-1952, compared to our GDP, in today's values, it's over $1.4 trillion.

And in terms of its value to war-broken European economies, it was vastly more important than even $1.4 trillion suggests.

And yes, about 2/3 of that money was spent purchasing American products like wheat, flour, meat, and other food staples, coal, oil, cotton, steel, farm tractors, industrial machinery and infrastructure equipment to rebuild railroads, bridges, ports and electric power grids, etc.
The other 1/3 of Marshall Plan funding was used to purchase European made goods for European customers.

About 90% of the Marshall Plan was grants, not loans.

So, it was a big deal, and I've never seen anybody try to argue that the US would be better off today if we had NOT done the Marshall Plan.

On the other hand, the precedent it set, of the US willing to shell out untold billions, even trillions of dollars without demanding reasonable returns on our investments was not good for our own long term financial health, and so contributed to today's financial mess wherein the US national debt is larger than our inflated GDP, and annual deficits are running around 7% of GDP.

That situation is not sustainable, and the mindset which created it needs to finally change.

39 posted on 11/21/2025 6:30:57 AM PST by BroJoeK (future DDG 134 -- we remember)
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To: BroJoeK
Zellensky read too much of that history and decided America owes him/Ukraine hundreds of Billions of free US tax payer dollars.
That worked under the corrupt Biden regime.
Didn't hold any water under Trump.
That first Trump/Zellensky meeting was the dnd of that nonsense.
80 years after WW II, its long past time for Europeans to take care of their own problems, especially since Ukraine is not even in NATO.
40 posted on 11/21/2025 10:41:12 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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