JCShutout wrote:
I'm going to start calling anyone who supports the military, or building roads (etc.) a socialist because that's socialist wealth re-distribution.
Here's another chart - where US tax dollars go ( it looks like they've excluded social security, medicare spending which seems proper - since that spending is mandatory and
supposedly a disbursement of payroll tax collections for ss + medicare.)
I have not dug thru source detail of this pie chart - it originates from the Quakers ( oh those peaceniks oatmeal guys can't be trusted
), with a surface comparison to US budget - the allocation seems within range. There are inherent problems in accounting for true defense spending - combat operations (Iraq etc)are supplemental add-ons, plus defense costs are scattered thru categories other than what goes to the DOD. For example -the VA spending on Vets, interest on defense portion of national debt, and even nuclear weapons - go thru dept of Energy's budget. The supplemental funding bills for Iraq -not included above.
I'm not naive to think US can get by without a strong national defense. But clearly we've gone down a non-sustainable path with how much we rely on military solutions and spend on Defense-and this is even with the shamefully low level of pay to our military citizens.
The history of the world is littered with former dynasties that were unable to balance there defense spending or imperialist desires with other priorities. As other competing countries are able to allocate money to research, new technology, infrastructure, education -we have to allocate half to our military.
**Proponents of higher military spending like to sugarcoat the amount we spend militarily compared to our national GDP. Percentage-wise its a small portion of our GDP. (note GDP is inflated by our debt-laden consumption mess). This is not an accurate measure - if anything, it measures the burden on the US economy of defense spending - but does nothing to measure the burden on US taxpayers, nor the lack of funding on other priorities.
