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An unnecessary war is any war that people perceive to be unjustified and/or a waste of taxpayers' money. The Korean War, The Vietnam War, The Gulf War, The War in Afghanistan, and The Iraq War have all been described as unnecessary wars.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
For most of recorded history the power of the purse had been exclusively controlled by kings/emperors. Their control over taxes/tributes derived its legitimacy on the basis of divine authority. This authority was severely challenged in 1215 by the Magna Carta.
In other words, the nobles felt like the king was spending too much of their money on war. So, due to irresponsible spending, they took the power of the purse from him.
Every war has a cost...but far more importantly...every war has an opportunity cost. The cost is how much money and lives were spent on a war while the opportunity cost is what the money and lives could have accomplished if they hadn't been spent on the war. Clearly it's in the interests of the citizens that a nation's limited resources be used to produce the maximum value.
Here is Adolf Hitler arguing that more defense spending would create more value...
Here is Dwight Eisenhower trying to help people understand that wars have a very high opportunity cost...
Here's Daniel Brown's answer to the question raised by Eisenhower...
In other words, "opportunity cost" isn't one king, or one president or 500+ congresspeople determining the best uses of an entire nation's resources...it's each and every citizen considering the best uses of their own resources.
Tax choice, by giving taxpayers the freedom to consider the opportunity costs of their tax spending decisions, would ensure that the supply of national defense reflected the actual demand for national defense. This is how we would achieve a balance that maximizes value.