How to get America out of debt and make America a science nation

Cut military spending by half, or more.

For the 2010 fiscal year, the president's base budget of the Department of Defense rose to $533.8 billion. Adding spending on "overseas contingency operations" brings the sum to $663.8 billion

America uses about 4/10 of the world total in military spending. In next place is China, who spends 85 billion yearly. (Some sources have different level of spendings.) China spends 5.8% of the world total.

Cutting military spending by half would save $330 billion dollars alone in 2010. In 5 years the debt would be cut by 1.65 TRILLION dollars. In ten years $3.3 trillion would be saved, getting 1/4 of the 12 trillion dollar debt gone, without even raising taxes.

Redesign the infrastructure

We are running on technology of the past. Look outside, and look at a light pole, or the telephone wires. They have most likely been there sense the 80s. If we where to replace them with current technology, they would be more energy efficient, and we more effective. Solar panels could be hooked to the top of most light poles, collecting energy by the day, and turning on during the night. There are garden lights that do that, giving off a lot of light. Light bulbs don't even need to be used, everything could be replaced with LED lights, which almost never burn out, and are usually around a dime a light. Solar panels can be put on traffic lights. You probably wouldn't even have to put a whole new pole up. You could even use glow in the dark paint!

Find a new energy source

Get rid of the need for oil, you just have to pay for it, and repay for it over and over again. Use a new energy source. An example of a new energy source would be wind, solar, hydro, thermal, geothermal, nuclear, and many others yet discovered





America should be a science nation again. We should be on other planets. We should have renewable energy. I am tired of America being behind in Science, we have not gained many achievements sense sending people to the moon. We need to open up a new pathway to science.














Sources:
In order by use.
en.wikipedia.org...
en.wikipedia.org...
www.google.com...:USA&dl=en&hl=en&q=america+military+spending

reply to post by Phlynx


last time they cut military spending, they didn't cut back on bombs and wars, they took it out of the incomes and cost of living raises of the enlisted non-commissioned military members. it got so bad, that even after 8 years of active duty service, most military members qualified for food stamps and lived in hovels.

[edit on 16-4-2010 by undo]

You are raising good points but still how long do you think it will take to do this?

How long will it be until the American people loose their attention spans and try to stop the change?

How long until somebody gets tired of not having their phones working during the change?

How long do we have?

We won't know until it is too late. People are so ignorant these days, most of them, and don't care about anybody else. I can bet my bottom dollar if this is even tried that someone will protest this change.

Then everyone will start to play the blame game, and while we are bickering, we get bombed because we didn't pay enough attention to what we were suppose to.

As I said before, how long? We won't know until it is too late.

I believe clean technologies have existed in the past.
There is a lot of information about the Pharoah's Lighthouse.

I suppose they fell by the wayside for the convenience of modernization and profit.

Along similar lines, if you had to spend days on the hunt to catch your food, would it not seem an improvement to find a way to domesticate and corral the animals, then slaughter as you needed them? Look where "better" has led us.

Oh, and wasn't the solar powered city of Atlantis lost to a black cloud that wiped out the power and allowed their enemies to overtake them while the power was out?

There is always a carrot on a string. There is nothing new under the sun.

Originally posted by undo
reply to post by Phlynx

 

last time they cut military spending, they didn't cut back on bombs and wars, they took it out of the incomes and cost of living raises of the enlisted non-commissioned military members. it got so bad, that even after 8 years of active duty service, most military members qualified for food stamps and lived in hovels.

[edit on 16-4-2010 by undo]

That is why wars should be cut back, and we should all be taken out from bases over seas, and only defend ourselves if we are attacked or if there is a planned attack on us. It should be primarily defense.

This would also stop countries from being angry at us due to us being in there country. The main problem with the middle east is that they don't want us there, and that is what is causing a lot of the problems like terrorists.

Wars and bombs should be cut back on.

Originally posted by Alethea

Oh, and wasn't the solar powered city of Atlantis lost to a black cloud that wiped out the power and allowed their enemies to overtake them while the power was out?

There should always be a back up system, that is just common sense.


Anyways there is no proof that Atlantis even had that technology.

I agree fully with your post there OPs

however, being a realist, I know America would rather cut off its legs and arms...and let 150 million people die before they cut back too much on military spending

You think America is addicted to oil? Think again...America is addicted to military buildups....no way in hell it will stop overdevelopment of its supermachine.

oh, and your also forgetting the 400 billion a year in black budget programs btw...

I agree with the idea.

But does this military budget fund state of the art science as well ?
I mean, usually they got it first.

My personal opion is that America arrogant and possesive. Bossing around as much asit possibly can. Americas armies bring war and death and not peace and democracy. But without America, I would have talked Russian so I don't mean to say they aren't wanted at all. They sure as hell overexagurated.

reply to post by Phlynx


Hey Phlynx !

How many people does the industrial military complex now employ both directly and indirectly ? I`m guessing it props up a fair sized chunk of the U.S economy .
Hard to kick the habit with so many depending on it .....

Like the war on drugs , so many people employed ` in the war` that to cease would put a lot of people out of work . Bizarre? yes.

The U.S military has kept the U.S economy hovering over the `sweet spot` for decades ....... no doubt about it.

-----------------

That aside .....

I agree with you , its a tremendous amount of money to spend . which seems to increase year on year regardless of the economic state of the U.S. I like the picture you paint its a world i`d like to see take shape.


But the reality at present .....

7 billion people can not have an opulent lifestyle , so while the third world plays catch up - the first world is scrambling to maintain its standard of living .

Some things gotta give !

reply to post by Sinter Klaas


Military funding absolutely funds state of the art science and not always in areas that you might think. Just to name a few I know first hand that a lot of the cancer treatment research we do here at my university is funded by the department of defense and I personally helped draft a proposal for a prostate cancer treatment that was submitted to the army. Interestingly enough one of my friends has funding from the navy to perform balance and motion capture experiments on obese people (fat sailors on a rocking boat?).

I don't know how I feel about this idea that the U.S. is falling behind in science. For example the university that I'm working has reported total research expenditures of ~365 million dollars a year (2008 I believe) which sounds pretty good until you realize that amount only put it in 49th place in terms of top research universities. If the U.S. was so far behind, why do I work with students from all over the world who had to jump through countless hoops for the opportunity to come study here?

Overall though I do agree with your first point, the military budget is enormous, and the lion's share of it doesn't go to funding the research I just mentioned (cancer treatment). However, the number employees whose paychecks are directly linked to this massive budget is also enormous and we seem to be completely opposed to any loss of jobs right now as a nation.

reply to post by TheCuriousEngineer


I guess it ends up with this.

America has finished what it was suppose to do. ( Last century, by TPTB )
The task was to create a global 'free' market. The whole world is now part of the same market. This makes the world the perfect playing ground for corporate companies. They have now reached a point where they are so powerful they have a direct influence on politics.
This system is now ( unless it will collapse ) self sustaining so America has a different role to play. War.

Only to benefit TPTB and sustain their free market empire.

For this task it's better to have a large amount of numnuts just skilled enough to learn how to use their weapons. Then an all nerd/geek/ for himself thinking generation