Military Spending. Is it out of control?

I know sometimes you gotta fight. But we've got to have better solutions than bombs and guns. We've bombed and shot the crap out of each other for centuries, yet things don't ever really get solved. If we put as much effort into communicating with one another as we did with building weapons, we might actually tear down some internal walls that sepparate us. And I also know you have to remove from power, those nuts like hitler, because you might not get too far talking with someone like him.

Troy

Looking at those charts i would have to say, yes. Not just America either, it does by far spend the most but every country on that list should try to reduce their spending. Military equipment gets old and needs to be re-placed fast so if you don't use it in that time it's basically a waste of money. Of course you can't reduce spending unless your potential threats reduce it at the same rate as you otherwise they would have a huge advantage and that might actually cause a war because they would think they could win. Considering this it's unlikely that spending will be reduced significantly in the near future.

I have a problem with using our national military - and our tax dollars - for corporate colonization.

I think the chart says it all. "THE" nuke superpower being the biggest spender on"defence" points to either paranoia in extreme or something more sinister, like intent to globally dominate. No other reasoning makes sense to me.

Hey Division Bell, thankyou just for avatar and username, I love that album, its one of my fav floyds!

[edit on 083131p://20018 by instar]

Maybe military spending is not out of control at all. Maybe it's well controlled and the money is going to who it is meant to be going to, according to those who have a vested interest

Here is a chart showing what we can do if we were to cut military spending by 15%.

US 420.7 vs. The World 439.6

Dern...we could almost pull it off...well, we could preemptive strike em, though...

Let me explain why costs are so high in this little story...it is a true story too...

When we first started going into space, our astronauts noticed that their pens no longer worked in zero-g. You see, since their was no gravity, Earth doesn't lovingly pull the ink toward the tip of the pen. So, NASA decided it would get the greatest engineers on the payroll to solve this problem. Months had gone by and an idea finally emerged. This pen would write in zero gravity. And these pens can be purchased at NASA gift shops for $20. I digress. We spent millions on developing and engineering this pen. This was brand spanking new technology. The Russians just used a pencil.

Yes, we do spend quite a bit on the military, but the world spends more...

I feel the military is the place ripe for cuts at the moment.

If I was the US president my budget proposal would be to raise taxes back to pre-Bush levels and launch a plan to cut pentagon spending by 25% over 8 years, retire a few carrier battle groups and lower the procurement numbers of the JSF program and ask partner nations to contribute more. I would also aim to reduce the overall military personnel by 20% and proceed with military rapid reaction reforms.

I would also wish to cut the nuclear arsenal in half over 10 years.

Pretty wishful thinking I know, but one is allowed dream of a day where the military budget is small ($100 billion) and the debt is being healthily paid off and taxes are cut when they can actually be afforded

thanks,
drfunk

Dr funk, you and kerry both have the same plan for destroying America what are the odds?

Originally posted by mwm1331
Dr funk, you and kerry both have the same plan for destroying America what are the odds?

lol and I actually like Kerry a lot! I'm a diehard social and domestic liberal and extremely progressive but when it comes to economics i'm a diehard fiscal conservative and I do not buy things that I cannot afford and I will never own a credit card and the only debt i will ever have is a home loan. The worst thing I hate to see in government is budget deficit, it's a cancer that must quickly be removed and there should only be government deficit in only a few circumstances.


thanks,
drfunk

Oh my god is military spending in America out of control.