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The most common reply to all of these are "What is the price tag?" They also expect someone to make a profit off of everything including public services. The moneyed class has us convinced that someone has to make a profit off of something before it can become reality. When people wonder what happened to service, we privatized it. We never ask about the military budget.
So I work for a Government owned, contractor operated (basically a way for the government to own employees without paying government benefits) lab in the defense sector and even our management will shoot use the term "profitable" when we try proposing better benefits. There are no profits with us and we aren't producing any tangible items (just design and analysis engineering), yet when we ask for extra days off due to covid and whatnot they'll pull the "that's not profitable" card.
This is super shitty.
"Profitable" can advantageous and doesnt have to be about money. So what they are saying is "Giving you more benefits and time off will hinder the company's goals. It is not an advantage for the company."
Which the best countered with a list of reasons why it is in the company's best interest to do it your way.
This is best demonstrated with health insurance companies. Back in the day, Preventitive Care was not covered automatically- think no yearly check-ups. However, catching an issuee earlier rather than later is cost efficient.
This can also be demonstrated with the No Smoking Incentives and Nic Quit services. It is cheaper to help employees to stop smoking and give an $X incentive than it is to pay the medical bills of someone with lung cancer. And you'll likely use your life insurance later (which means more premiums collected).
They wont pay those medical bills tho. We expect the guy with cancer to give up everything he has and pass that debt to his kids. The company will just wash its hands of the guy and hire another warm body to fill his seat without a care.
Now come to think of it, I used to for for the IT department of a software company. My manager and director always say that our group is not revenue generating but rather an expense group when we talked about raises and other items purchases. The sales team were treated like gods. Of course that BS but yeah whatever.
I worked for design firms and ad agencies. The sales people were treated like gold. The designers -- the ones actually doing the work-- were treated like shit.
There really isn’t such a thing, unless you’re referring to an FFRDC? Even then, it isn’t government owned in any way, shape or form. It’s federally funded and you aren’t actually a government employee at all.
Oh no what's that, our Congress cares more about the demands of a few executives in large weapons manufacturing companies over the general population, get out !
The flow of money:
Worker -> Government -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected. . .
Teachers, builders, and dentists, among many others, would profit off of the other spending options. They're not likely to turn around and give ~~kickbacks~~ donations to politicians though.
There's also lots of money that are doing shitty, ineffective versions of most of the things in the image. Why can't we completely kill Social security, medicare, medicaid, SNAP, etc. and replace them with newer, modernized systems that might actually work? We're already spending so much, reallocate it instead of just stacking new services on top of the old, defunct ones.
Which is a double win for the wealthy on both sides invested. We test out fancy toys and the guys who own the land and oil keep the populace busy from trying to get their share.
Everyone also jumps to taxes too. They assume that these systems are guaranteed to be inefficient tax sinks but they dont have to be.
Repiblicans arent even conservative anymore. They just refuse to allow tax money to benefit us. Hell you could even save people tons of money by allowing the government to sell those services directly to the people at their break even point. It would be fiscally responsible AND would have huge benefits for us.
But whos gunna think of the poor administrators running for profit colleges and hospitals!
They've been trying to do it here in Canada for a while now. Or rather, slowly doing it piece by piece eg: Saskatchewan cut funding for healthcare **during** the pandemic and now points to the surgical backlog as an excuse to why they need to privatize some procedures. Disgusting how it works on certain people...
Just remember, corporate healthcare costs around $4T per year. America spends more money on *medical administration* than the military.
The military is a big expense, but corporate capture of government is waaaaay bigger.
I'll admit, I used to parrot the four trillion number as the reason universal healthcare couldn't be done. It took some time and research to discover the unbelievable middleman costs involved.
I'm a libertarian by nature, and I was convinced pretty easily once I had the right information in front of me. There's no excuse for not taking care of our people.
I'm Canadian and it honestly baffles me how much Americans pay in medical bills, it's ridiculous. My dad had multiple major surgeries, 2 of them heart transplants, which were covered in Canada. I couldn't even imagine loved ones having to pay to save their family members or themselves.
I calculated it a year ago or so, with his 20 open heart surgeries plus transplants, monthly biopsies, living in the hospital from 1-10 then 18-to when he passed other then coming home for a month max at a time, and the daily medication. It would of been over a million dollars, it's insane.
It would've been *way* more than that in the US. I saw some bill on reddit the other day of a few weeks' hospital stay while intubated and it was over $3M.
What would the actual costs have been if the middle men were cut out? Who knows. But that was the itemized bill the person got. It was covered by insurance in this case, and odds are insurance negotiated it way down anyway, but that it's even a possibility to get such a bill is completely absurd.
I went to the ER over the summer for chest pain and an EKG blip the walk-in clinic didn't like. I was there for four hours as they waited for blood stuff to confirm I wasn't having a heart attack. This brief visit cost about $10k of which I still had to pay $1200 with insurance covering the rest.
America is not a country. It's just a business. We're all just little worker drones generating profit for the capitalist hellscape we were born into. And if we get sick, it's often a choice of go broke or die. Fuck this place.
That's very sad and messed up, it is absurd. I've come to the realization that if we were in the states my dad probably wouldn't of survived past 2 or 3 let alone him living till 44. I don't think I saw that post but I did see one similar a while ago and it's fucked honestly, I empathize for any American that has to go through that bullshit.
My grandma and I have literally talked about this. Even as a devote Catholic, she says she’d rather die than saddle our family with her medical expenses if her health starts declining. She says God would understand.
A single payer system would cost about $2.5-3T depending how it was implemented.
US spends 20% of GDP on healthcare, most other countries spend 10-13%
Anyways, saying “it can’t be done because we spend too much money on it” is kinda dumb. We’re already spending the money.
Yeah anything other than single-payer, non-profit will end up in a corporate capture profiteering mess.
As always, root cause is money’s hold over US politics.
They don't. That's why it should be a community work, funneled through government logistics.
The idea here is that with the proper application of both socialist and libertarian philosophy, we could both tear out the uneccessary parts of the fedgov while simultaneously finding good and actually worthwhile uses for the vast amounts of money capable of being moved. Even with a vast reduction in taxes at the lower levels of income, there would still be more than enough tax money to put a UBI in place. That alone will increase overall quality of life for every level of society.
It will also help to even out the massive power imbalance between employers and employees. Creating free post high school education facilities would increase overall education for the populace, and the two combined would allow for more people to find their best place in life.
Reducing regulations and various burdens on people and companies is easier and less destructive when people have no need to rely upon employment for survival. It's a lot harder to threaten and abuse an employee who can just walk away without giving a shit and learn to do something more worth their time.
Not to mention health care. Healthy people work harder and have higher morale. Even if all that changed is the fedgov paying for everybody's insurance premiums, the country would be vastly better off. And without large uneeded parts of the government (think the NSA, DoE, DoD, etc.) it could afford to do so.
The key here is "quality of life". Aim to reduce expenditures while still increasing the QoL for your citizens. Going back to the idea that we are all free and equal, not just pawns to be employed for pennies at the whims of our elite class.
What you’re saying makes logical sense and is well meaning. However, the socialist views are largely influenced by Marxist views and just don’t work for people. Humans are ambitious creatures and always have been. The collective of humanity would need to evolve to a place of common good and the human species is just nowhere close to that level of collectivism and they probably never will be. Kings and Lords have ruled the earth for a long time and will continue to do so. Power has a way of corrupting people and the people without power, just want more power or at least some. These conversations are interesting for sure, but really not constructive because human nature will always be human nature.
That's why that power should be as mimimal and diffuse as possible. If you cannot trust people, but society and nature requires you to do so, then you reduce the amount of concentrated authority as much as feasible. It's why, despite my populist ideas, I remain libertarian.
When you talk about important subjects using the word “should”, it really becomes a philosophical exercise. Why “should” we do anything? Why is the animal kingdom unfair when the Lions murder the weak gazelles for food or kill other alpha male lions and take their females as spoils? If we changed human nature to be more collectivist, what unknown side effects would we see? My conclusion is just that human nature will never change and it’s much easier to work around the imperfections in the framework, rather than try to change something that is likely not meant to be changed.
At one point in the USA, there was both of those things. The government was limited and charity was handled by the church. At this point, most people are under the thumb of some sort of government. The Democratic Party is structured in a way to incentivize laziness under the guise of helping people. People/Animals will always take the easy meal over the hard earned one, it’s animal nature.
Hey just an fyi in case you don't know, but American libertarianism is actually not the oldest, or *most accurate* form of libertarianism. American libertarianism, or libertarian capitalism is inherently less liberatory than libertarian socialism, because capitalism always has a hierarchy in "owner vs employee". it's a common, propoganda fueled misconception that socialism is inherently authoritarian. Just like anything else there is a spectrum of belief and capitalists want you to think the only alternative is authoritarian and bad.
"Libertarian" was actually [co-opted](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3194162-one-gratifying-aspect-of-our-rise-to-some-prominence-is&ved=2ahUKEwj53dio88L6AhUxLkQIHSdSDaAQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3PHGR8PiAXGM7ZD7EZGX0Z) by the right to further muddy the waters. In reality, libertarian socialists are typically the type of libertarian asking for what this image is suggesting. Libertarian socialism is very similar to anarchism. The anarchy101 or anarchism subreddits would be useful to check if you're interested. Great info in the sidebar and people are willing to answer questions. If you have any for me feel free to ask. "American libertarians" (lib-caps) and libertarian socialists have a lot in common, aside from economics.
With the way healthcare is set up in our country there are so many middle-men and companies trying to get their cut that everything from a medical procedure to a box of tissues are grossly over-charged, with gov't oversight a lot of that wouldn't be necessary.
This has been posted before but I thought it worth reposting
>Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
-Dwight D. Eisenhower
I think Google tried to set up their own internet fiber lines but ran into trouble because of ordinances that make it hard for new ISPs to set up (its why ISPs like Comcast have a monopoly in most places and therefore why internet in the US suck complete ass, there's no competition and no need to improve).
Yep. Google Fiber. Nearly free fiber internet. Existing provider monopolies bought off every local politician to ensure the project never got going.
There have been other great ideas to lower the cost of getting everyone access to high speed internet. See the [dig once](https://broadbandnow.com/report/dig-once-digital-divide/) program under Obama that Republicans killed.
This country is a dumpster fire.
You have to keep in mind that Googles market share is massive. They are to marketing what DeBeers is to diamonds. "Diamonds are forever" That ad campaign has no branding because it doesn't matter. DeBeers' hold on the market is so big it's more important that the market get bigger than for them to increase the market share. It's the same economic proposition for Google. They don't give a shit where or how you get internet access. They just need the market to grow. Googles real barrier to growth is the ISPs so offering free internet is just an attempt to accelerate that process.
Exactly. Also, Google has positive cash flow of 135 billion, and having that much cash being idle isn't great. One strategic option for that situation is to look for low risk, low-yield, very strategic long-term investments, with Google Fiber being an obvious choice. Well, would have been an obvious choice, in a less broken and corrupt market, that is.
The problem is systemic, not merely an age thing. Sinema is young, so is madison cawthorne. Both of them are going to make this country a worse place, and both are going to give plenty of money to the military. Thinking things will magically get better when boomers die is flawed. It will require intentional dismemberment of the military industrial complex.
I get that but what the fuck are we even supposed to do? They say X before getting voted in, then they do a 180 and do Y. We can’t even do anything about it. I feel like the people are just powerless at this point.
Welcome to DC politics. One day the old ones will die off or retire, however they will be replaced with slightly younger models. I fucking hate it too.
Vote in your local elections, not just the Presidential elections.
Nationwide, less than 30% of eligible voters participate in local elections.
In local elections, Congress people and House reps are decided via your direct vote. Please visit this link to learn more about local elections and when they are being held in your state: https://www.usa.gov/midterm-state-and-local-elections
"Meet the new boss
Same as the old boss"
The pigs in Animal Farm
It's not getting rid of "the bad" so much as achieving solidarity among the disenfranchised to gain enfranchisement regardless who's in charge. Like women did when they obtained the right to vote and the later dominos of rights that followed.
There is no shortage of batshit young conservatives, and they’re a hell of a lot more dangerous than the older conservatives and centrists unfortunately. Dems will hand over power to them before they hand it over to the left.
Sad, but probably true. The only thing missing is the whinnying and loud finger pointing. Still have the same healthcare system and ever growing student loan crisis while the rich get exponentially richer.
Remember when Biden was falling further and futher behind in the polls and with each primary - only for all the centrists to drop out and line up behind him practically at once?
Remember when Sanders and Warren - progressives - had healthier campaigns than the rest of the lineup?
Imagine how different things might have been....
It's not harsh enough. Nobody over 70 should be allowed to work or run for office or, frankly, vote. If you have no stake in the future, you won't vote to preserve it.
Politicians aren’t going to stop funding the military industrial complex because of how it aids re-elections. When politicians give money to the military industrial complex, that creates jobs in all 50 states, from military jobs, to the most impactful jobs such as manufacturing.
And yet these companies produce more munitions than the military needs. Year after year, military leaders testify that they’ve been given way too much money.
The best way to solve this issue is to invest most of that money into retraining blue collar workers into working other lucrative jobs that aren’t reliant on military manufacturing, and to invest in UBI for anyone who struggles to find jobs.
I’m with you but they old guys groom a select few and make sure those few protect their legacy and keep the same policies and BS alive.
There is always going to be these people
Yeah sadly 😔 Americans should really consider leaving the USA and live in a country that has some free healthcare. America's "enemy" Russia has free healthcare :"The Constitution of the Russian Federation has provided all citizens the right to free healthcare since 1993"
> Americans should really consider leaving the USA and live in a country that has some free healthcare.
You're aware that immigrating to any other developed nation is difficult, and requires you to have skills that country wants, among other things?
The US is very permissive, by contrast.
Somewhere in the plan of providing free care, education and so forth I am highly favorable for including free health and psychological assistance to all of our veterans passed, present and future. I have worked with veterans that are being destroyed by the post dramatic syndrome. Not to mention those who come home dismembered. Surely we can afford some assistance for them. If not I am ashamed of any plan presented to approval.
Exactly 💯 my opinion is that healthcare should be the top priority of a country. Then the government can start addressing other problems like education and whatnot.
Well, China is amassing troops on their border with Taiwan, and Russia is amassing troops on their border with Ukraine. All in all, it looks like the interesting times are here to stay.
Well, we don't have to get involved, but China did threaten to attack the US if we try to get involved in anyway, even if we try to mediate peace between them.
Meanwhile, my son's barracks had no heat orA/C (in Norfolk, Virginia) because the base facilities department can't spare $5,000 for a new compressor. And the flashlights in his shop are crap, he tells me (I bought him a decent one). Wherever all that money is going, it's not to where it's needed.
It is going to stupid contracts. For example, the GH was supposed to replace the U2.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/breakingdefense.com/2017/03/u-2-expert-says-global-hawk-just-cant-compare/amp/
Basically, the GH can't carry the same stuff. So now we are footing the bill for both. Somehow a less capable air plane is supposed to replace a more capable air plane, because, drone! Why they didn't just modify the U2 to be a drone is beyond me.
It's not surprising that modifying an almost ancient airframe into a drone is more expensive than just developing a new plane. It honestly would be cheaper to develop a new airframe and cut ties with the U2 as long as the Air Force actually received a workable product. A drone honestly wouldn't cut it imho.
But we have a separate problem in the fact of Congress can force the Air Force to continue using the U2 because it provides jobs for their congressional district, which is happening with the A10.
ask what Battalion he is in, you can find his CO's number from the Battalion website
get the phone number for the Battalion Command Sargent Major, if for some reason you can't get hold of the BN Sgt. get the number for the Brigade Command Sargent Major...
Make sure you tell them about the no heat or A/C too... Let them know that your son had the courage to stand up and tell you about what's going on...
I hope your son gets taken care of, he deserves it...
Well, that is a good escalation strategy there. And I don't recall if it was just his quarters, or the whole building (dorm-style barracks) or what. However, the kid made E-5 on his first attempt and got an apartment. After ducking his Notice to Vacate for oh, I don't know, 6 months or so? Just pretended that it didn't happen, bc he didn't have roommates and wanted to keep it that way. So he's doing all right. And I'm damn proud of him.
Yep spent somet time in an engine room and the only way we got supplies to do our job was to buy our own tools and lights. The ones they provide (when they actually provide any) are either in adequate old or broken.
What's even "better": The military base pay raise this year is only 2.7%, which with the inflation rate is actually a pay cut. Basic allowance for housing has not remotely kept pace with housing cost increases, which has lead many servicemembers PCSing in the past year to end up living in hotels, campers, or their cars because rent is hundreds of dollars more per month than what they are allotted to pay for it.
Only about 23% of the military budget actually pays the troops.
Pretty sure the bloated military budget for the past 50 years has played a large part in the persistent uptick of inflation. That $35,000 home in the 60s is now $500,000 - $750,000, in large part due to the lobbying efforts of the Military Industrial Complex (see $400 for a hammer type swindling).
If the US military is forced to purchase things at 2-30x the cost of that a civilian would pay, then we have a pretty damn good idea where the waste is coming from (corrupt and inept politicians), and who it is going to (aforementioned politicians and their friends).
Just like the bloated cost of the healthcare system. That, too, is a contributor to the decreasing value of the dollar. Such individuals (politicians, lobbyists, CEOs, etc) who advocate and protect this type of parasitic behavior will inevitably run the US dry - killing the host.
A lot has to be done. We need to get the average age of Congress down to the 40s to start. We can’t afford to have Congress be a retirement home/geriatric park where it’s residents are clearly embracing the Boomer default mode network of “fuck everyone else, I am going to get mine” - and that is a huge cause of this problem we are facing, too.
Anyway, that’s about that for now.
The state exists to enshrine the military, everything else is window dressing so they can avoid fighting a war against the working class, which they will absolutely lose.
Did you know that the calling it the military budget is misleading. It’s the national defense budget which includes the department of state, department of energy, all federal police agencies such as FBI, a portion of the space budget also falls into the defense budget. This is only a fraction of the different agencies that fall under the defense budget. Anyone can look to see where the money actually goes and to what programs. Operations and maintenance cost of the military only is roughly 279 billion and the service members pay and health care is 161 billion. So let’s look at it objectively and not for just clickbait and Reddit clout. Info can be found on defense.gov and pgpf.org for those of you who can’t find the info on your own.
I don't have the link but the figures on how much more efficient people become with proper vacation time is astounding.
That coupled with the $55 Billion only being the amount the government would subsidize the employers for that time. Obviously this will still bite into CEO's yearly bonuses.
It still might be way off, because I am not even remotely good at math lol
I don’t think there has ever been an accurate measure of costs for things. Our debt as a country is out of control and what we have seen from the debt is about nothing. The issue to me is that we don’t run the country for the people. We run it for business who is supposed to take care of people. For instance instead of making it law that employers provide 12 weeks of leave, we want to fund it through government. Why on earth would we pay taxes (the people who would use the benefit) to use the benefit? That makes no sense. It blows my mind that the tax paying base wants the government to provide things like this. When a simple law requiring your employer (who makes money off your labor) to provide the benefit is more beneficial to all. Another one: why would we want to pay taxes to pay for education for all? Make business pay for it. They benefit from said educated people. I will make 130k this year. And I will pay 41k+ in taxes. The company I work for will make 100 billion this year. And profit 10-11%. And I’ll bet they pay minimal taxes. So why not make them put 300 million aside for education. I dunno this is just my two cents.
Note - I lean more progressive, but also served in the military.
It’s important to remember that military budget (while usually wasted) still employs 5 million people….
I do think we should find a common ground in the military spending / progressive concepts … but it seems like everything has to be one or the other
The main problem with the military is that the constantly spend way to much to ensure the higher ups get paid a shit ton and the shoulder barely see a penny of it
Free healthcare would bankrupt the US, mainly because it can’t spend 42 trillion dollars a year. Also, it works in European countries because they have tiny populations that can be easily government supported while the US population is too big to support. Yeah Afghanistan was a waste of 3 trillion dollars but that was over 20 years, and free healthcare costs that every month. Yeah the US healthcare system is shit but it’s the next best thing for almost half a billion people.
We already spend more than $42t per year on healthcare. It's just that right now, that money goes through expensive insurance middlemen instead of the government. Free healthcare would be cheaper than what we have now.
Thikol
Raytheon
Boeing
Lockheed Martin
Unisys
Bechtel
Stark Industries
General Dynamics
Northrup Grumman
Humana
Securitas
G4S
Allied Universal Security Services
Prosegur
GardaWorld
BAE Systems
Huntington Ingalls
Sheldon G. & Miriam O. Adelson of Adelson Drug
Thomas & Taylor Steyer of Fahr LLC
Richard & Elizabeth Uihlein of Uline Inc
Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel LLC
...damn, we really fucked if I have to point this out
Of course there's a middle ground, but saying "here's what half the military spending could get us" isn't as useful rhetorically. There are decisions to be made but every decision is a trade-off.
The Corporations in control of our government will never let that happen...
[unless](https://www.lastwordonnothing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-24-at-12.42.25-PM.png)
Also the Military’s annual cost to taxpayers is a lot higher than that $768 billion, it misses many costs resulting from active military engagement, and totally ignores all the interest payments from the debt that’s piled up from all the prior military engagements. The military industrial complex is extremely powerful in this country and it’s antithetical to any claims of being a democracy.
Get rid of use it or lose it budgets and the government paying insane prices for things. There’s been $700 chair bumpers $1300 coffee cups the list goes on. It’s not as simple as just “military spend too much” the way government budgeting works is super stupid, and they grossly overpay for many many many things.
This is why i hate paying taxes. I dont want to fund wars. I want to fund housing programs, addiction recovery programs, safe injection sites, and education for everyone.
Fuck paying for wars that benefit corporations while those same corporations paying nothing in taxes
A homes for all type program could be a lot cheaper, i remember some studies even estimating it as a net gain for the government. Because giving the homeless shelter would keep them out of jails/ERs and keep them from comiting crimes , and long term get them off welfare.
Sure we could halve the military to house, feed, and educate every American. But what would happen to the people who own Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed, etc? Won’t somebody think of the investors?!?
You know.... so like.. yeah 768 billion is a lot of money but... yaknow.. health and human services budget grows much faster, is an unpredictable expense (meaning they dont know how much to borrow ahead of time) and its total budget is predicted to be 1.5 trillion. Many of the programs mentioned would fall into this health and human services department which is already larger than almost the entire bureaucracy of every nation in the European union. Even the senate says that most of the additional public deficit will come from health and human services sector. In general, the entire rest of the USG pales in comparison, even the rest of the world pales in comparison to our spending on 1.health and human services, 2. dept of def 3. veterans 4. interest on public debt.
so the general lesson here is... the USG does it less efficiently than everyone else in the whole dang world. So like... yeah we should try to keep things things away from them. Theyre like... the worst.
So well said but to let you know Dental, Vison, & Hearing already are covered under Part C of Medicare! Sorry most of House & the Senate don’t even realize it was signed into law In 1996!
Fuck yes, this forever. Military worldwide are just parasites that serve their own caste. Oh yeah let's destabilize this region so we'll need more defense money... blah blah. Fuck them.
Do you really think so? Do you think publicly funding socialist programs are going to solve all our problems? You don't think there are hundreds of millions of Americans our there who would fight this every step of the way?
I'm not disagreeing that most of these programs would be money better spent, but to think that it would magically solve all of american's problems is naive.
US wins war: "Nooooooo it's imperialism"
US doesn't go full throttle and ends up leaving: "LOL what losers. Can't even defeat cavemen and farmers"
I wish US would go full imperial just to show Europoors and Chinese bots what they're actually capable of doing.
So overly simplistic. It definitely doesn't work this way.
Also, the government just printed several trillion dollars to combat the covid pandemic, on top of the trillions of dollars it printed for the usual stuff. Why can't the government just print enough month for the military plus all the things listed in this meme?
Didnt the government pay most of that money to ultra rich corporations who should have (based on their many decades of success) plenty of money already?
There is a reason why we have never had to fight a single battle on American soil since this country was founded and that is due to our military spending. It you want the middle of our country to look like war torn Aleppo and Baghdad then go ahead and cut military funding.
Your Liberal assessment of my ignorance non withstanding, I can agree that some of the military spending could be re-allocated to other programs. But the lion's share of it IS needed.
Imagine if we completely dismantled the entire military, how fast we would come under attack from all our enemies out there hiding in shadows we can't even see because of all the things the brave men and women of our military do daily. I wish I could say that terrorist groups would just "disappear" if our military did too, but they wont....
Now on the other hand.....if all of the 1000+ billionaires living in the US gave on avg 1 billion dollars each in taxes annually, then we would have 1 trillion extra in the budget for all of the things listed in this graphic, and more.
EDIT:
THE SPENDING ISNT THE ISSUE, ITS THE RICH AND THEIR TAX AVOIDANCE AND LOBBYISTS AND CORPORATE GREED.
WE NEED TO TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT BECAUSE NO MATTER WHICH "SIDE" YOURE ON, YOURE STILL HUMAN AND THIS GOVERNMENT IS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE.
It's not a binary decision of fund at this level vs no military at all. The military budget is bloated and Continues to rise. Seems it should have gone down after pulling out of Afghanistan, no? Is it even tied to reality or is it just a blank check? Why do we have to justify the existence of every social program on costs and keep costs down and end up not going through with then when the military gets a green light every time? I haven't heard anything about debates around this budget the way we did with the infrastructure budget. Our military is protecting crumbling bridges and lead pipes.
The problem with your interpretation of the military budget (and I’m speaking as one of those “brave” people) is that it’s not keeping you safe from terrorist groups. Virtually every anti-American terror group that has cropped up in the last 35-40 years came into existence because of American interventionism. Furthermore, America’s aggressive foreign policy needlessly increases tensions with states like China and Iran, who rightfully view American military activity on their borders with alarm -you and I would be similarly horrified by regular Chinese naval patrols within the Berring Strait, for example. The era of US hegemony is over, and we can continue being genuinely antagonistic toward our rivals and bring war closer, or keep our military as a genuine defensive force while also not spending grotesque amounts of money on it
That budget isn't meant to "protect" anyone, it's mean to give money to billionaires through military industrial contracts for equipment that will sit in a warehouse and never be used. You could slash the military budget in half and the average citizen would never notice a difference.
You're a paranoid asshole and the military is so feeble and effeminate that if we *did* fight a war against like china or russia we'd get fucking raped into the dirt immediately anyway. I'm allowed to say it I'm a veteran
Unfortunately the military is of vital importance to the state. America has pissed off too many other powerful countries to just stop being the big kid on the block. While I HATE that we spend so much on the military I fear that the position in which our country has placed itself is one of power, a position which many other countries desire and would wage war to gain.
The thing we are doing wrong is not viewing public well-being as a factor in our military strength, many of our poor have a slew of health problems due to inadequate food and medicine, our society sits on the brink of a civil war, all this weakens us. Our politicians on both sides have profited on our division to the detriment of social unity I'm worried that when our nation is called to war we may not unite like in WW2 the old farts in the government don't seem to see what's going on.
I mean, if you take out renewable energy and add health care for all service members and their families, retirement pension, lifetime healthcare for retirees and their families, adjust the leave to 30 days, free college, 401k matching, take away the broad band and add supplying troops overseas and other military stuff you’d have the same thing. My point is that the money just doesn’t go to fighting wars, much of it goes to taking care of soldiers.
The military protects every single one of those things you listed there. I wish more people would be aware of this. The US protects a large number of countries as well.
One of the weakest posts I’ve seen on here…
Simply speaking, I think OP is forgetting that not even ONE of these outcomes would be possible if China (or another world superpower) were to declare war on the US and they didn’t have the budget to defend themselves. The US is 1/4th the population of China and is in a MUCH larger world spotlight. No shit they spend a lot of money on their military. It seems everyone wants to take them down.
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The most common reply to all of these are "What is the price tag?" They also expect someone to make a profit off of everything including public services. The moneyed class has us convinced that someone has to make a profit off of something before it can become reality. When people wonder what happened to service, we privatized it. We never ask about the military budget.
So I work for a Government owned, contractor operated (basically a way for the government to own employees without paying government benefits) lab in the defense sector and even our management will shoot use the term "profitable" when we try proposing better benefits. There are no profits with us and we aren't producing any tangible items (just design and analysis engineering), yet when we ask for extra days off due to covid and whatnot they'll pull the "that's not profitable" card.
Talk about double skimming.
Commenter is not speaking the truth. Please see my comment. They just *want* to be a government employee. Source: I’m a government employee.
This is super shitty. "Profitable" can advantageous and doesnt have to be about money. So what they are saying is "Giving you more benefits and time off will hinder the company's goals. It is not an advantage for the company." Which the best countered with a list of reasons why it is in the company's best interest to do it your way. This is best demonstrated with health insurance companies. Back in the day, Preventitive Care was not covered automatically- think no yearly check-ups. However, catching an issuee earlier rather than later is cost efficient. This can also be demonstrated with the No Smoking Incentives and Nic Quit services. It is cheaper to help employees to stop smoking and give an $X incentive than it is to pay the medical bills of someone with lung cancer. And you'll likely use your life insurance later (which means more premiums collected).
They wont pay those medical bills tho. We expect the guy with cancer to give up everything he has and pass that debt to his kids. The company will just wash its hands of the guy and hire another warm body to fill his seat without a care.
Now come to think of it, I used to for for the IT department of a software company. My manager and director always say that our group is not revenue generating but rather an expense group when we talked about raises and other items purchases. The sales team were treated like gods. Of course that BS but yeah whatever.
I worked for design firms and ad agencies. The sales people were treated like gold. The designers -- the ones actually doing the work-- were treated like shit.
There really isn’t such a thing, unless you’re referring to an FFRDC? Even then, it isn’t government owned in any way, shape or form. It’s federally funded and you aren’t actually a government employee at all.
Controlled discourse. The simple minded think they're smart by parroting talking points fed by the media.
Oh no what's that, our Congress cares more about the demands of a few executives in large weapons manufacturing companies over the general population, get out !
>We never ask about the military budget. That's because people profit off it.
The flow of money: Worker -> Government -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected Business People -> Politicians -> Connected. . .
Teachers, builders, and dentists, among many others, would profit off of the other spending options. They're not likely to turn around and give ~~kickbacks~~ donations to politicians though.
And without that $768B budget, who would be there to fight the middle east? 😕
There's also lots of money that are doing shitty, ineffective versions of most of the things in the image. Why can't we completely kill Social security, medicare, medicaid, SNAP, etc. and replace them with newer, modernized systems that might actually work? We're already spending so much, reallocate it instead of just stacking new services on top of the old, defunct ones.
Which is a double win for the wealthy on both sides invested. We test out fancy toys and the guys who own the land and oil keep the populace busy from trying to get their share.
If we hadn’t intervened in the Middle East it would probably be a lot better off. I know we would have a lot more living citizens
Everyone also jumps to taxes too. They assume that these systems are guaranteed to be inefficient tax sinks but they dont have to be. Repiblicans arent even conservative anymore. They just refuse to allow tax money to benefit us. Hell you could even save people tons of money by allowing the government to sell those services directly to the people at their break even point. It would be fiscally responsible AND would have huge benefits for us. But whos gunna think of the poor administrators running for profit colleges and hospitals!
They've been trying to do it here in Canada for a while now. Or rather, slowly doing it piece by piece eg: Saskatchewan cut funding for healthcare **during** the pandemic and now points to the surgical backlog as an excuse to why they need to privatize some procedures. Disgusting how it works on certain people...
"The postal service lost $xxxxx last year!" Yeah, because maybe the post is a service that costs and isn't expected to generate profit.
Tell them to look up the origins of the game Tetris. The creator didn’t really profit from that at all.
Yup Alexey Pajitnov created it in the Soviet Union.
And yet it’s on every game console that has come out since.
Also one could argue that with these benefits the country would “profit” from a more effective and productive workforce
Just remember, corporate healthcare costs around $4T per year. America spends more money on *medical administration* than the military. The military is a big expense, but corporate capture of government is waaaaay bigger.
I'll admit, I used to parrot the four trillion number as the reason universal healthcare couldn't be done. It took some time and research to discover the unbelievable middleman costs involved. I'm a libertarian by nature, and I was convinced pretty easily once I had the right information in front of me. There's no excuse for not taking care of our people.
I'm Canadian and it honestly baffles me how much Americans pay in medical bills, it's ridiculous. My dad had multiple major surgeries, 2 of them heart transplants, which were covered in Canada. I couldn't even imagine loved ones having to pay to save their family members or themselves.
In the U.S. that would be hundreds of thousands of dollars
I calculated it a year ago or so, with his 20 open heart surgeries plus transplants, monthly biopsies, living in the hospital from 1-10 then 18-to when he passed other then coming home for a month max at a time, and the daily medication. It would of been over a million dollars, it's insane.
It would've been *way* more than that in the US. I saw some bill on reddit the other day of a few weeks' hospital stay while intubated and it was over $3M. What would the actual costs have been if the middle men were cut out? Who knows. But that was the itemized bill the person got. It was covered by insurance in this case, and odds are insurance negotiated it way down anyway, but that it's even a possibility to get such a bill is completely absurd. I went to the ER over the summer for chest pain and an EKG blip the walk-in clinic didn't like. I was there for four hours as they waited for blood stuff to confirm I wasn't having a heart attack. This brief visit cost about $10k of which I still had to pay $1200 with insurance covering the rest. America is not a country. It's just a business. We're all just little worker drones generating profit for the capitalist hellscape we were born into. And if we get sick, it's often a choice of go broke or die. Fuck this place.
That's very sad and messed up, it is absurd. I've come to the realization that if we were in the states my dad probably wouldn't of survived past 2 or 3 let alone him living till 44. I don't think I saw that post but I did see one similar a while ago and it's fucked honestly, I empathize for any American that has to go through that bullshit.
My grandma and I have literally talked about this. Even as a devote Catholic, she says she’d rather die than saddle our family with her medical expenses if her health starts declining. She says God would understand.
A single payer system would cost about $2.5-3T depending how it was implemented. US spends 20% of GDP on healthcare, most other countries spend 10-13% Anyways, saying “it can’t be done because we spend too much money on it” is kinda dumb. We’re already spending the money.
Add middleman profits and we’re back to squad one again. Ouroboros
Yeah anything other than single-payer, non-profit will end up in a corporate capture profiteering mess. As always, root cause is money’s hold over US politics.
Why do “people” HAVE to care of other people?
They don't. That's why it should be a community work, funneled through government logistics. The idea here is that with the proper application of both socialist and libertarian philosophy, we could both tear out the uneccessary parts of the fedgov while simultaneously finding good and actually worthwhile uses for the vast amounts of money capable of being moved. Even with a vast reduction in taxes at the lower levels of income, there would still be more than enough tax money to put a UBI in place. That alone will increase overall quality of life for every level of society. It will also help to even out the massive power imbalance between employers and employees. Creating free post high school education facilities would increase overall education for the populace, and the two combined would allow for more people to find their best place in life. Reducing regulations and various burdens on people and companies is easier and less destructive when people have no need to rely upon employment for survival. It's a lot harder to threaten and abuse an employee who can just walk away without giving a shit and learn to do something more worth their time. Not to mention health care. Healthy people work harder and have higher morale. Even if all that changed is the fedgov paying for everybody's insurance premiums, the country would be vastly better off. And without large uneeded parts of the government (think the NSA, DoE, DoD, etc.) it could afford to do so. The key here is "quality of life". Aim to reduce expenditures while still increasing the QoL for your citizens. Going back to the idea that we are all free and equal, not just pawns to be employed for pennies at the whims of our elite class.
What you’re saying makes logical sense and is well meaning. However, the socialist views are largely influenced by Marxist views and just don’t work for people. Humans are ambitious creatures and always have been. The collective of humanity would need to evolve to a place of common good and the human species is just nowhere close to that level of collectivism and they probably never will be. Kings and Lords have ruled the earth for a long time and will continue to do so. Power has a way of corrupting people and the people without power, just want more power or at least some. These conversations are interesting for sure, but really not constructive because human nature will always be human nature.
That's why that power should be as mimimal and diffuse as possible. If you cannot trust people, but society and nature requires you to do so, then you reduce the amount of concentrated authority as much as feasible. It's why, despite my populist ideas, I remain libertarian.
When you talk about important subjects using the word “should”, it really becomes a philosophical exercise. Why “should” we do anything? Why is the animal kingdom unfair when the Lions murder the weak gazelles for food or kill other alpha male lions and take their females as spoils? If we changed human nature to be more collectivist, what unknown side effects would we see? My conclusion is just that human nature will never change and it’s much easier to work around the imperfections in the framework, rather than try to change something that is likely not meant to be changed.
There's room for both. A reduction in authority and an increase in charity.
At one point in the USA, there was both of those things. The government was limited and charity was handled by the church. At this point, most people are under the thumb of some sort of government. The Democratic Party is structured in a way to incentivize laziness under the guise of helping people. People/Animals will always take the easy meal over the hard earned one, it’s animal nature.
Hey just an fyi in case you don't know, but American libertarianism is actually not the oldest, or *most accurate* form of libertarianism. American libertarianism, or libertarian capitalism is inherently less liberatory than libertarian socialism, because capitalism always has a hierarchy in "owner vs employee". it's a common, propoganda fueled misconception that socialism is inherently authoritarian. Just like anything else there is a spectrum of belief and capitalists want you to think the only alternative is authoritarian and bad. "Libertarian" was actually [co-opted](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3194162-one-gratifying-aspect-of-our-rise-to-some-prominence-is&ved=2ahUKEwj53dio88L6AhUxLkQIHSdSDaAQFnoECAYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3PHGR8PiAXGM7ZD7EZGX0Z) by the right to further muddy the waters. In reality, libertarian socialists are typically the type of libertarian asking for what this image is suggesting. Libertarian socialism is very similar to anarchism. The anarchy101 or anarchism subreddits would be useful to check if you're interested. Great info in the sidebar and people are willing to answer questions. If you have any for me feel free to ask. "American libertarians" (lib-caps) and libertarian socialists have a lot in common, aside from economics.
With the way healthcare is set up in our country there are so many middle-men and companies trying to get their cut that everything from a medical procedure to a box of tissues are grossly over-charged, with gov't oversight a lot of that wouldn't be necessary.
They also forget that the money going into the military goes mainly to private contractors and their buddies
This has been posted before but I thought it worth reposting >Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron. -Dwight D. Eisenhower
I guess he just didnt love our troops and America. /s Great quote honestly.
I think I heard somewhere that Eisenhower was really against war-profiteering
Incredibly based
Republicans would hate this commie socialist.
He did ban and purge LGBT people from federal employment so they'd probably make an exception for him.
> Dwight D. Eisenhower This is the asshat that coup'd Iran's democracy so America could steal more oil.
Should make Google/Amazon pay for universal broadband since they easily make more the $15B a year from us all being on the internet.
I think Google tried to set up their own internet fiber lines but ran into trouble because of ordinances that make it hard for new ISPs to set up (its why ISPs like Comcast have a monopoly in most places and therefore why internet in the US suck complete ass, there's no competition and no need to improve).
Yep. Google Fiber. Nearly free fiber internet. Existing provider monopolies bought off every local politician to ensure the project never got going. There have been other great ideas to lower the cost of getting everyone access to high speed internet. See the [dig once](https://broadbandnow.com/report/dig-once-digital-divide/) program under Obama that Republicans killed. This country is a dumpster fire.
I would not depend on Google giving it out for "free."
You have to keep in mind that Googles market share is massive. They are to marketing what DeBeers is to diamonds. "Diamonds are forever" That ad campaign has no branding because it doesn't matter. DeBeers' hold on the market is so big it's more important that the market get bigger than for them to increase the market share. It's the same economic proposition for Google. They don't give a shit where or how you get internet access. They just need the market to grow. Googles real barrier to growth is the ISPs so offering free internet is just an attempt to accelerate that process.
Exactly. Also, Google has positive cash flow of 135 billion, and having that much cash being idle isn't great. One strategic option for that situation is to look for low risk, low-yield, very strategic long-term investments, with Google Fiber being an obvious choice. Well, would have been an obvious choice, in a less broken and corrupt market, that is.
Exactly, I'd gladly pay more for good internet but I'm stuck grossly overpaying for a crap package because that's literally all I can get.
Only if it's a public utility at the end of that... It wouldn't be.
As harsh as it sounds, I only look forward to the day that the last old fuck in government making decisions for us dies off.
The problem is systemic, not merely an age thing. Sinema is young, so is madison cawthorne. Both of them are going to make this country a worse place, and both are going to give plenty of money to the military. Thinking things will magically get better when boomers die is flawed. It will require intentional dismemberment of the military industrial complex.
I get that but what the fuck are we even supposed to do? They say X before getting voted in, then they do a 180 and do Y. We can’t even do anything about it. I feel like the people are just powerless at this point.
Welcome to DC politics. One day the old ones will die off or retire, however they will be replaced with slightly younger models. I fucking hate it too.
> what the fuck are we even supposed to do? https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1900/reform-revolution/intro.htm
Vote in your local elections, not just the Presidential elections. Nationwide, less than 30% of eligible voters participate in local elections. In local elections, Congress people and House reps are decided via your direct vote. Please visit this link to learn more about local elections and when they are being held in your state: https://www.usa.gov/midterm-state-and-local-elections
I sincerely hope the people of AZ make Sinema a one term senator
Said every generation in history. Not saying you shouldn't have optimism that new blood can make things better, but this view is not unique.
"Meet the new boss Same as the old boss" The pigs in Animal Farm It's not getting rid of "the bad" so much as achieving solidarity among the disenfranchised to gain enfranchisement regardless who's in charge. Like women did when they obtained the right to vote and the later dominos of rights that followed.
There is no shortage of batshit young conservatives, and they’re a hell of a lot more dangerous than the older conservatives and centrists unfortunately. Dems will hand over power to them before they hand it over to the left.
I feel they stole the primaries from Bernie twice. That gave us four years of Trump.
And 4 years of "not trump" then 4 more years of trump again, fuck america
Sad, but probably true. The only thing missing is the whinnying and loud finger pointing. Still have the same healthcare system and ever growing student loan crisis while the rich get exponentially richer.
>get exponentially richer. 😬
Remember when Biden was falling further and futher behind in the polls and with each primary - only for all the centrists to drop out and line up behind him practically at once? Remember when Sanders and Warren - progressives - had healthier campaigns than the rest of the lineup? Imagine how different things might have been....
We are 20 years away from that so hold on
It's not harsh enough. Nobody over 70 should be allowed to work or run for office or, frankly, vote. If you have no stake in the future, you won't vote to preserve it.
They always get replaced by young people who are shitty in their own ways.
Plenty of young fucks think like them. Mayor Pete wouldn’t decrease military spending.
Politicians aren’t going to stop funding the military industrial complex because of how it aids re-elections. When politicians give money to the military industrial complex, that creates jobs in all 50 states, from military jobs, to the most impactful jobs such as manufacturing. And yet these companies produce more munitions than the military needs. Year after year, military leaders testify that they’ve been given way too much money. The best way to solve this issue is to invest most of that money into retraining blue collar workers into working other lucrative jobs that aren’t reliant on military manufacturing, and to invest in UBI for anyone who struggles to find jobs.
I’m with you but they old guys groom a select few and make sure those few protect their legacy and keep the same policies and BS alive. There is always going to be these people
Let's start step by step: first we focus on Medicare for all. Then we tackle the rest.
We had the chance twice and the establishment said no twice. It’s not going to happen in our lifetimes.
Yeah sadly 😔 Americans should really consider leaving the USA and live in a country that has some free healthcare. America's "enemy" Russia has free healthcare :"The Constitution of the Russian Federation has provided all citizens the right to free healthcare since 1993"
> Americans should really consider leaving the USA and live in a country that has some free healthcare. You're aware that immigrating to any other developed nation is difficult, and requires you to have skills that country wants, among other things? The US is very permissive, by contrast.
Somewhere in the plan of providing free care, education and so forth I am highly favorable for including free health and psychological assistance to all of our veterans passed, present and future. I have worked with veterans that are being destroyed by the post dramatic syndrome. Not to mention those who come home dismembered. Surely we can afford some assistance for them. If not I am ashamed of any plan presented to approval.
Exactly 💯 my opinion is that healthcare should be the top priority of a country. Then the government can start addressing other problems like education and whatnot.
I live in ukqbd find it crazy that ppl have to pay to live
American society is a scam.
America isn't a country. It's an oil company with an army.
This is disturbingly accurate.
Us army is alone the reason we were able to keep world peace for so long taiwan would be no existant if not us
> world peace bombing the Middle East and screwing over Asia/Latin America since WW2 is considered world peace?
So we are *increasing* the military budget after (checks notes) completely withdrawing from the protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Well, China is amassing troops on their border with Taiwan, and Russia is amassing troops on their border with Ukraine. All in all, it looks like the interesting times are here to stay.
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Those aren't our fights though. Why does the U.S. have to get involved in those?
Well, we don't have to get involved, but China did threaten to attack the US if we try to get involved in anyway, even if we try to mediate peace between them.
I think the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances we signed in 1994 may say otherwise with regard to Ukraine.
The US is bound by treaty to defend taiwan in the case of an invasion
Meanwhile, my son's barracks had no heat orA/C (in Norfolk, Virginia) because the base facilities department can't spare $5,000 for a new compressor. And the flashlights in his shop are crap, he tells me (I bought him a decent one). Wherever all that money is going, it's not to where it's needed.
It is going to stupid contracts. For example, the GH was supposed to replace the U2. https://www.google.com/amp/s/breakingdefense.com/2017/03/u-2-expert-says-global-hawk-just-cant-compare/amp/ Basically, the GH can't carry the same stuff. So now we are footing the bill for both. Somehow a less capable air plane is supposed to replace a more capable air plane, because, drone! Why they didn't just modify the U2 to be a drone is beyond me.
It's not surprising that modifying an almost ancient airframe into a drone is more expensive than just developing a new plane. It honestly would be cheaper to develop a new airframe and cut ties with the U2 as long as the Air Force actually received a workable product. A drone honestly wouldn't cut it imho. But we have a separate problem in the fact of Congress can force the Air Force to continue using the U2 because it provides jobs for their congressional district, which is happening with the A10.
The pentagon is the only govt institution that is unable to pass an audit of its finances
ask what Battalion he is in, you can find his CO's number from the Battalion website get the phone number for the Battalion Command Sargent Major, if for some reason you can't get hold of the BN Sgt. get the number for the Brigade Command Sargent Major... Make sure you tell them about the no heat or A/C too... Let them know that your son had the courage to stand up and tell you about what's going on... I hope your son gets taken care of, he deserves it...
Well, that is a good escalation strategy there. And I don't recall if it was just his quarters, or the whole building (dorm-style barracks) or what. However, the kid made E-5 on his first attempt and got an apartment. After ducking his Notice to Vacate for oh, I don't know, 6 months or so? Just pretended that it didn't happen, bc he didn't have roommates and wanted to keep it that way. So he's doing all right. And I'm damn proud of him.
Yep spent somet time in an engine room and the only way we got supplies to do our job was to buy our own tools and lights. The ones they provide (when they actually provide any) are either in adequate old or broken.
That's the thing; if the basic stuff like that was properly taken care of, I really wouldn't mind the huge amounts they piss away so much.
What's even "better": The military base pay raise this year is only 2.7%, which with the inflation rate is actually a pay cut. Basic allowance for housing has not remotely kept pace with housing cost increases, which has lead many servicemembers PCSing in the past year to end up living in hotels, campers, or their cars because rent is hundreds of dollars more per month than what they are allotted to pay for it. Only about 23% of the military budget actually pays the troops.
Pretty sure the bloated military budget for the past 50 years has played a large part in the persistent uptick of inflation. That $35,000 home in the 60s is now $500,000 - $750,000, in large part due to the lobbying efforts of the Military Industrial Complex (see $400 for a hammer type swindling). If the US military is forced to purchase things at 2-30x the cost of that a civilian would pay, then we have a pretty damn good idea where the waste is coming from (corrupt and inept politicians), and who it is going to (aforementioned politicians and their friends). Just like the bloated cost of the healthcare system. That, too, is a contributor to the decreasing value of the dollar. Such individuals (politicians, lobbyists, CEOs, etc) who advocate and protect this type of parasitic behavior will inevitably run the US dry - killing the host. A lot has to be done. We need to get the average age of Congress down to the 40s to start. We can’t afford to have Congress be a retirement home/geriatric park where it’s residents are clearly embracing the Boomer default mode network of “fuck everyone else, I am going to get mine” - and that is a huge cause of this problem we are facing, too. Anyway, that’s about that for now.
People don’t understand. The reason for the size of the military budget is precisely so they don’t provide those other services. It’s the whole point.
Nah, its just so that people running the military industrial complex stay rich
*...stay in power* FT;FY
The state exists to enshrine the military, everything else is window dressing so they can avoid fighting a war against the working class, which they will absolutely lose.
So, revolution?
We could go bomb brown people abroad or how about we use those same resources to help our own here? It's a choice
Did you know that the calling it the military budget is misleading. It’s the national defense budget which includes the department of state, department of energy, all federal police agencies such as FBI, a portion of the space budget also falls into the defense budget. This is only a fraction of the different agencies that fall under the defense budget. Anyone can look to see where the money actually goes and to what programs. Operations and maintenance cost of the military only is roughly 279 billion and the service members pay and health care is 161 billion. So let’s look at it objectively and not for just clickbait and Reddit clout. Info can be found on defense.gov and pgpf.org for those of you who can’t find the info on your own.
Holy shit I found someone with a brain in the comments……..
I’m surprised I haven’t been downvoted to the abyss yet.
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I don't have the link but the figures on how much more efficient people become with proper vacation time is astounding. That coupled with the $55 Billion only being the amount the government would subsidize the employers for that time. Obviously this will still bite into CEO's yearly bonuses. It still might be way off, because I am not even remotely good at math lol
I don’t think there has ever been an accurate measure of costs for things. Our debt as a country is out of control and what we have seen from the debt is about nothing. The issue to me is that we don’t run the country for the people. We run it for business who is supposed to take care of people. For instance instead of making it law that employers provide 12 weeks of leave, we want to fund it through government. Why on earth would we pay taxes (the people who would use the benefit) to use the benefit? That makes no sense. It blows my mind that the tax paying base wants the government to provide things like this. When a simple law requiring your employer (who makes money off your labor) to provide the benefit is more beneficial to all. Another one: why would we want to pay taxes to pay for education for all? Make business pay for it. They benefit from said educated people. I will make 130k this year. And I will pay 41k+ in taxes. The company I work for will make 100 billion this year. And profit 10-11%. And I’ll bet they pay minimal taxes. So why not make them put 300 million aside for education. I dunno this is just my two cents.
Yeah, the broadband number is a shit estimate too
Note - I lean more progressive, but also served in the military. It’s important to remember that military budget (while usually wasted) still employs 5 million people…. I do think we should find a common ground in the military spending / progressive concepts … but it seems like everything has to be one or the other
The military industrial complex stops for no one
The main problem with the military is that the constantly spend way to much to ensure the higher ups get paid a shit ton and the shoulder barely see a penny of it
You can’t spend 0 on the military though. It isn’t feasible
People have a hard on for Medicare, and it helps a lot of destitute people. But majority of millennials don't qualify.
what about free healthcare why does no one care about free healthcare, they can and should provide that for citizens its ridiculous they don’t
Free healthcare would bankrupt the US, mainly because it can’t spend 42 trillion dollars a year. Also, it works in European countries because they have tiny populations that can be easily government supported while the US population is too big to support. Yeah Afghanistan was a waste of 3 trillion dollars but that was over 20 years, and free healthcare costs that every month. Yeah the US healthcare system is shit but it’s the next best thing for almost half a billion people.
We already spend more than $42t per year on healthcare. It's just that right now, that money goes through expensive insurance middlemen instead of the government. Free healthcare would be cheaper than what we have now.
But cummunism!!!!! No iphone foodism vuvuzuela 100 quadrillon dead!!!!
YeAh BuT whO Is gOnNa fiGHt fOr YouR fReEdOom
.. what freedom?
...the freedom of the babe
I think that's the point of the goofy alternating cap text.
and now tell me in an infographic what a $768 bil army looks like?
Thikol Raytheon Boeing Lockheed Martin Unisys Bechtel Stark Industries General Dynamics Northrup Grumman Humana Securitas G4S Allied Universal Security Services Prosegur GardaWorld BAE Systems Huntington Ingalls Sheldon G. & Miriam O. Adelson of Adelson Drug Thomas & Taylor Steyer of Fahr LLC Richard & Elizabeth Uihlein of Uline Inc Kenneth C. Griffin of Citadel LLC ...damn, we really fucked if I have to point this out
An army that loses to goat farmers and hasn't had an unironic W against a peer level power since 1945
An army that can invade a nation in 3 weeks
Where’s the middle ground? So what, we just completely eliminate the military all together?
sure... let us be the first to usher in a new peace let us be the first to beat our swords into plowshares
Of course there's a middle ground, but saying "here's what half the military spending could get us" isn't as useful rhetorically. There are decisions to be made but every decision is a trade-off.
The Corporations in control of our government will never let that happen... [unless](https://www.lastwordonnothing.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Screen-Shot-2019-09-24-at-12.42.25-PM.png)
Also the Military’s annual cost to taxpayers is a lot higher than that $768 billion, it misses many costs resulting from active military engagement, and totally ignores all the interest payments from the debt that’s piled up from all the prior military engagements. The military industrial complex is extremely powerful in this country and it’s antithetical to any claims of being a democracy.
Wow, that budget looks familiar- albeit of different amounts.
And they added the sources on the side. Fuuuucken awesoooome. Beautiful work.
Just think, you could have the greatest country on Earth! But you just have the greatest military.
We're literal orcs.
But wat about those gut dang North koreens?
We're never going to have any of that stuff because the government won't stop the out of control military spending
Get rid of use it or lose it budgets and the government paying insane prices for things. There’s been $700 chair bumpers $1300 coffee cups the list goes on. It’s not as simple as just “military spend too much” the way government budgeting works is super stupid, and they grossly overpay for many many many things.
I mean you still need a military budget. But I could see chopping off 1/3
and it probably won’t change. r/AmerExit
This is why i hate paying taxes. I dont want to fund wars. I want to fund housing programs, addiction recovery programs, safe injection sites, and education for everyone. Fuck paying for wars that benefit corporations while those same corporations paying nothing in taxes
A homes for all type program could be a lot cheaper, i remember some studies even estimating it as a net gain for the government. Because giving the homeless shelter would keep them out of jails/ERs and keep them from comiting crimes , and long term get them off welfare.
Sure we could halve the military to house, feed, and educate every American. But what would happen to the people who own Raytheon, Boeing, Lockheed, etc? Won’t somebody think of the investors?!?
I'm a military officer. We need to cut military spending. Period.
You know.... so like.. yeah 768 billion is a lot of money but... yaknow.. health and human services budget grows much faster, is an unpredictable expense (meaning they dont know how much to borrow ahead of time) and its total budget is predicted to be 1.5 trillion. Many of the programs mentioned would fall into this health and human services department which is already larger than almost the entire bureaucracy of every nation in the European union. Even the senate says that most of the additional public deficit will come from health and human services sector. In general, the entire rest of the USG pales in comparison, even the rest of the world pales in comparison to our spending on 1.health and human services, 2. dept of def 3. veterans 4. interest on public debt. so the general lesson here is... the USG does it less efficiently than everyone else in the whole dang world. So like... yeah we should try to keep things things away from them. Theyre like... the worst.
Third world country with a Gucci belt
I'd rather my taxes went to killing people in other countries /s
So well said but to let you know Dental, Vison, & Hearing already are covered under Part C of Medicare! Sorry most of House & the Senate don’t even realize it was signed into law In 1996!
Fuck yes, this forever. Military worldwide are just parasites that serve their own caste. Oh yeah let's destabilize this region so we'll need more defense money... blah blah. Fuck them.
I mean, we can't make our military budget literally $0 though.
If they did even half of that the US would start looking like a Utopia
Do you really think so? Do you think publicly funding socialist programs are going to solve all our problems? You don't think there are hundreds of millions of Americans our there who would fight this every step of the way? I'm not disagreeing that most of these programs would be money better spent, but to think that it would magically solve all of american's problems is naive.
Half this shit is commonplace in western Europe or was already a thinf in the US's past ya ignorant doofball.
Because they rely on US to cover their ass you numbnuts. What do you think NATO is? It's just America.
The only thing america can be relied on for is losing wars Get your head out of your ass
US wins war: "Nooooooo it's imperialism" US doesn't go full throttle and ends up leaving: "LOL what losers. Can't even defeat cavemen and farmers" I wish US would go full imperial just to show Europoors and Chinese bots what they're actually capable of doing.
SO YOU WANT THE COMMIES TO WIN?!?!!?!? -Some random fucking idiot-
Because if we had no military china wouldn't be a threat. Not at all.
Exactly!! All of nothing. There are only two options. There are zero options in between. BOOM BOOM KABOOM ALL THE WAY!!!
Bingo.
No problem, I'll make fun of your terrible takes any time.
So overly simplistic. It definitely doesn't work this way. Also, the government just printed several trillion dollars to combat the covid pandemic, on top of the trillions of dollars it printed for the usual stuff. Why can't the government just print enough month for the military plus all the things listed in this meme?
Didnt the government pay most of that money to ultra rich corporations who should have (based on their many decades of success) plenty of money already?
There is a reason why we have never had to fight a single battle on American soil since this country was founded and that is due to our military spending. It you want the middle of our country to look like war torn Aleppo and Baghdad then go ahead and cut military funding.
You are so hilariously ignorant.
Your Liberal assessment of my ignorance non withstanding, I can agree that some of the military spending could be re-allocated to other programs. But the lion's share of it IS needed.
Imagine if we completely dismantled the entire military, how fast we would come under attack from all our enemies out there hiding in shadows we can't even see because of all the things the brave men and women of our military do daily. I wish I could say that terrorist groups would just "disappear" if our military did too, but they wont.... Now on the other hand.....if all of the 1000+ billionaires living in the US gave on avg 1 billion dollars each in taxes annually, then we would have 1 trillion extra in the budget for all of the things listed in this graphic, and more. EDIT: THE SPENDING ISNT THE ISSUE, ITS THE RICH AND THEIR TAX AVOIDANCE AND LOBBYISTS AND CORPORATE GREED. WE NEED TO TAKE BACK OUR GOVERNMENT BECAUSE NO MATTER WHICH "SIDE" YOURE ON, YOURE STILL HUMAN AND THIS GOVERNMENT IS NOT FOR THE PEOPLE.
It's not a binary decision of fund at this level vs no military at all. The military budget is bloated and Continues to rise. Seems it should have gone down after pulling out of Afghanistan, no? Is it even tied to reality or is it just a blank check? Why do we have to justify the existence of every social program on costs and keep costs down and end up not going through with then when the military gets a green light every time? I haven't heard anything about debates around this budget the way we did with the infrastructure budget. Our military is protecting crumbling bridges and lead pipes.
The problem with your interpretation of the military budget (and I’m speaking as one of those “brave” people) is that it’s not keeping you safe from terrorist groups. Virtually every anti-American terror group that has cropped up in the last 35-40 years came into existence because of American interventionism. Furthermore, America’s aggressive foreign policy needlessly increases tensions with states like China and Iran, who rightfully view American military activity on their borders with alarm -you and I would be similarly horrified by regular Chinese naval patrols within the Berring Strait, for example. The era of US hegemony is over, and we can continue being genuinely antagonistic toward our rivals and bring war closer, or keep our military as a genuine defensive force while also not spending grotesque amounts of money on it
See this guy gets it
That budget isn't meant to "protect" anyone, it's mean to give money to billionaires through military industrial contracts for equipment that will sit in a warehouse and never be used. You could slash the military budget in half and the average citizen would never notice a difference.
You're a paranoid asshole and the military is so feeble and effeminate that if we *did* fight a war against like china or russia we'd get fucking raped into the dirt immediately anyway. I'm allowed to say it I'm a veteran
This is an extreme response, but ok, thanks, I guess?
This is a system of imprisonment.
Unfortunately the military is of vital importance to the state. America has pissed off too many other powerful countries to just stop being the big kid on the block. While I HATE that we spend so much on the military I fear that the position in which our country has placed itself is one of power, a position which many other countries desire and would wage war to gain. The thing we are doing wrong is not viewing public well-being as a factor in our military strength, many of our poor have a slew of health problems due to inadequate food and medicine, our society sits on the brink of a civil war, all this weakens us. Our politicians on both sides have profited on our division to the detriment of social unity I'm worried that when our nation is called to war we may not unite like in WW2 the old farts in the government don't seem to see what's going on.
Those "old farts" are the ones stoking the flames, they want us divided because it distracts us from all their corrupt bullshit and backroom deals.
I mean, if you take out renewable energy and add health care for all service members and their families, retirement pension, lifetime healthcare for retirees and their families, adjust the leave to 30 days, free college, 401k matching, take away the broad band and add supplying troops overseas and other military stuff you’d have the same thing. My point is that the money just doesn’t go to fighting wars, much of it goes to taking care of soldiers.
The military protects every single one of those things you listed there. I wish more people would be aware of this. The US protects a large number of countries as well.
One of the weakest posts I’ve seen on here… Simply speaking, I think OP is forgetting that not even ONE of these outcomes would be possible if China (or another world superpower) were to declare war on the US and they didn’t have the budget to defend themselves. The US is 1/4th the population of China and is in a MUCH larger world spotlight. No shit they spend a lot of money on their military. It seems everyone wants to take them down.