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Why does the US spend so much on military?
This is something that has always bothered me. Why does the US spend so much on military? The US spends 39% of the world total. 4.4% of our GDP. Saudi Arabia our ally spends more as a % of GDP. Of the top 15 countries only two are not solid allies (China and Russia).
When I was a kid, I was always told it was to protect our interests abroad. When you look at the EU, Japan, China, etc who are out exporting the US then this starts to seem a bit thin. I wonder how much stronger the US economy would be if we didn't waste money on this endeavor? Edit - link to Wiki - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...y_expenditures |
The rulers will tell you it's to protect you and to bring freedom around the world! :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh
It's to control you and to impose their will on whoever they wish :2 cents: |
To tell everyone else what to do?
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I suppose I should remove him but then I would have to read this and 500 other posts that twist anything resembling logic into delusional fantasies.
"This message is hidden because TheFootMan5 is on your ignore list." |
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On the full list if you sort by % of GDP, anyone spending a lot is a place you would not want to live. |
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PS I am still trying on that thing hahah. |
Because military contractors make billions from it which gets passed on to lawmakers.
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find out who actually profits and then you will see why.
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The military industrial complex is 25% about defense and 75% about profit these days. Eisenhower warned the country about that eventuality emphatically, and he was right. |
War machine profits aside - on a planet where the antiquated notion of 'fear of God' has broken down - someone has to play the role of policeman.
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Bitcoin is the anwer
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The United States also has more interests in other areas than most countries. For example, the United States has concerns in Asia with China, North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. France does not. Quote:
How much stronger would the US economy be if we didn't waste time on our military? It would be a lot worse off. Don't look at the military as a "waste" but instead look at the benefits. A large portion of the US population benefits from the US military. You can start with military personal and their dependents, then civilian contractors. (When I say "civilian contractors" I mean both civilians who work on base, civilian contractors who supply the bases, as well as contractors who build the ships, planes, tanks, weapons, etc etc.) Then factor in the cities and counties that get nearly all of their business from military bases - grocery stores and apartments. Then factor in the technological aspects. With the US military you can argue we would not have computers, GPS, the Internet - even cell phones. Then we can argue about education and how the US military has affected education over all in the US. How many people have graduated from a military college, or gone to school on the GI bill? The boom we saw in the 1950s was because of American servicemen returning from Europe, going to college, and then re-entering the workforce as college graduates. Setting aside all of the advantages of having a large military, the primary reason we have a large military is because of Korea and to a lesser extent, Vietnam. At the close of WWII, just like every other war the US was involved in, we reduced our military to the smallest amount possible under peacetime conditions. We had interests in Europe (The cold war and the constant fear of communism) and we also had interests in Asia (Hawaii, Guam, Japan, Hong Kong, and the constant fear of China) and when war broke out in Korea the US was woefully unprepared. It was impossible to protect our interests in Europe and Asia while trying to fight a war in Korea. We cannot just snap our fingers and increase the size of our military. Thus, to protect our interests we have to have a large and modern military. |
Americans have built themselves a certain way of life of the past 200 years. Aside from the other obvious reasons for investing in their military they probably mainly just want to protect that way of life.
With all the constant bullcrap going on in the world I can't say I blame them. |
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Why do we need to spend so much on military now when all we do is zoom around with unmanned drones
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You need people to design, build, and maintain those drones. You need a home base to run them out of. That home base needs to be protected. And all of those people need to be feed and need medical care. So now you need to teach people how to cook and how to give medical aid. Then you need to teach people how to supply the base when it's three thousand miles away. Then you need someone to run the base, and then someone to run the communications systems. And so on. And that's just for drones. We also need ships and planes too. |
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we're obviously someone else's "tool" ...
i really liked the "we'll invade Iraq but we'll pay for it with their oil" ... Americans payed for it, we keep paying for it while a select few benefit |
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If we did not have a huge national debt and such high spending on the military, we might offer free college like they do in many parts of the EU. |
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Ford for example actually built B-24 Liberators in their retooled factories. Chrysler Corporation built Sherman Tanks in their factories. Ect..Ect.. While the Auto manufactures could easily go back to producing for the civilians, these other companies found it much harder. (you can only sell so many airplanes to non military customers) This created lots of profits & jobs, for these companies and a few such as Lockheed, Bell, Boeing.. ect..ect realized there was shitload of money to be made by selling mostly to the Military and working govt contracts and they couldn't grow in the civilian market as easily as they could, by focusing on govt contracts. They lobbied, and lobbied and lobbied and added with paranoia of a growing commie threat.. well we ended up with large sections of the economy based around providing equipment for the military which turns full circle and becomes self feeding monster so to speak. As long as there is a perceived threat.. that is. Watch the documentary "why we fight".. It's pretty good and covers a lot of this. |
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This seems to be the issue - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...democrats.html |
to get oil and cheap laibor
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I would like to know why we buy imported firearms for our military?
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its called small penis syndrome
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If it didn't then somebody else would.
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What this does is essentially secures their future business prospects because it means any sort of defense spending cuts affect every damn state in the union in one way or another because jobs will be lost. No Senator is going to vote to lose jobs in his own state if he wants to get re-elected, doesn't matter what side of the aisle he sits on. :2 cents: If you like that documentary, the same guys released one on the war on drugs and the privatization of the prison system. It's also well worth the watch and shows how the war on drugs is essentially feeding the same kind of deal as what goes on with defense spending. It's called "the house I live in". http://www.thehouseilivein.org/ |
You're mistaking "we" (the civilian population) with "we" (the wealthy who control the politicians). The second we is doing just fine spending 5% of your GDP on military. In fact it's one of the only things you still manufacture, that can't be outsourced.
They don't care about you, or the country. Just raise their taxes and see how fast they flee. That's how patriotic they are. While they expect a mother to give her 4 sons to fight for their interests... It's just a money machine, powered by civilians, but not for civilians. |
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What's interesting is people from certain other countries of the world who criticize the USA and their military and their "meddling" etc, right up until there's a major catastrophic crisis in their country. Then their officials are on CNN crying "Why does the USA not HELP us?!" "Please send your military to SAVE us!" "Why you no send help? Do you not CARE?"
I've witnessed this phenomenon several times over the years and each time I do it never fails to amaze me. |
The US has been in over 100 wars from 1776 to today. With out the US making sure they can win these wars.
You would be speaking German, Russian or Japanese. |
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It's all a profit machine, that feeds in itself and it's not just the US.. We are just the biggest player. All the other major players around the world are involved as well. France, UK, China, Russia.. ect..ect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_in...arms_exporters All of them supply weapon systems to other countries. :2 cents: |
To protect the petrodollar at all cost :2 cents:
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At the end of WW2, Korea was occupied by Japan and when Japan surrendered to the US suddenly the US (and it's Allies) were in control of a large amount of territory. Eventually Korea was split in half, with the Southern half being a country the US set up, and the Northern half controlled by communists. Eventually North Korea attacked South Korea, the country we had created - our friends and allies - was about to be over run. The US could have sat back and said "You are on your own". All of Korea would have been communist, and being as the US had followed a course of appeasement in Asia... China would have clearly taken Hong Kong, the Philippines, and eventually Japan. Sounds unlikely now, but not right after WW2 where Japan had expanded from Japan proper all the way across the Pacific to attack the US. Quote:
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Maybe Korea would be all communist now and China would have taken over all of Asia including Japan, The Philippines, and perhaps Hawaii. Maybe if we allowed Afghanistan to be a base for terrorists they would have continued to attack the US, and every day we would have bombs going off in major cities. That would make what just happened in Boston seem minor. Maybe if we allowed Iraq to take Kuwait, they would have attacked Saudi Arabia too. I believe the primary reasons Iraq attacked Kuwait was because Iraq owed Kuwait billions (loans for the Iraq - Iran war) AND wanted their oil. Iraq also owed Saudi Arabia a large amount of money too, more than Iraq could ever repay. Maybe we if did nothing the entire Middle East would be run by Saddam - And imagine how that could affect the US economy. Perhaps you don't remember the gas lines in the 1970s, how you could only by gas on certain days, IF you could find gas, and IF you could afford it. Quote:
At least we wouldn't have to worry about oil because so few of us would have cars. |
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Just look at the wailing and gnashing of teeth when anyone suggests doing so. We're idiots. http://www.swifteconomics.com/wp-con...y-spending.gif |
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But then... All that money we spend on the military, it's dependents, the tens of millions of civilian contractors.... All of them would be unemployed. We'll save billions, hundreds of billions, but then we'll have tens of millions unemployed. I'm cool with this really. Let's get rid of the Air Force, the Amry, and the Navy. Let's close nearly all of our bases across the world. The US Marines can handle the rest. |
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