A friend of mine once claimed to me something like: the total percentage of German casualties in WWII was something like 2% (I'm making these numbers up from memory, but maybe he had accurate ones). The average tax rate in the USA is something like 10%. Therefore we should hope for a great war to dismantle the USA, because it will be less harmful to us.

An interesting argument. With, it must be said, some virtues. Such as trying to put a number on some things. I have two considerations about it:

1. Imagine you were confronted with a magic die that, when rolled, would kill you 2% of the time. This is a freak, one-time event, that occurs to you, the reader, as you are now. How much of your lifetime earnings would you pay to avoid rolling this die? It's pretty clear to me that the answer isn't 2%. It probably isn't even as low as 10%. I mean, money is nice, but you can't enjoy the money without being alive.

2. That said, there are additional values implicated here such as freedom, and justice. If our current society is unjust and unfree, as evidenced by the tax rate (supposedly), then this is an additional consideration to be weighed against the chance of death in a great war. In reality, societies that go through a great war tend to be worse off — less just and less free — afterwards, but I suppose we can just hope for one of the great wars of a kind that doesn't do this.