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I am actually most sympathetic to the idea that the military is the single really identifiable point where large-scale waste is identifiable. However, even that

I am actually most sympathetic to the idea that the military is the single really identifiable point where large-scale waste is identifiable. However, even that spending is dwarfed by health and welfare transfer payments, and procurement is a fraction of military spending. So... yeah, procurement is big and wasteful. But in 2013 (the last year that Wikipedia had) we've got around ~100B of procurement out of 610B of military spending and out of 3.45 trillion dollars of spending. That's like 1 dollar out of 34, probably not all 100% wasted either. I'm not going to argue that there's not a lot of wasteful government spending - transfer payments that don't need to happen, waste in healthcare, etc. I just don't see much of a path towards a really substantial change in tax rates that would emerge from 'cutting waste'. Tackling transfer payments IMO is a much bigger deal, but this is also likely unfixable for political reasons (essentially the middle class have to be bribed to support anti-poverty programs by including them in the transfer payment merry-go-round).

Consultant32452 9y ago
Military spending serves two purposes. The first is as a jobs program for the poor and nominally educated. The second is a sieve through which we pour ginormous sums of money in the hopes of creating technological breakthroughs such as computers, solar panels, nuclear power, etc. None of which would've come to market nearly as quickly, if at all, without seemingly insurmountable government waste. The United States wouldn't even have been conquered by Europeans without massive government waste shipping some people across the Atlantic. It's important to keep these ideas in mind when we talk about government waste.
- Clubber 9y ago
  Also, military spending of WWII got us out of the depression. We haven't really stopped and no one really knows what would happen to our economy if we did. I would like to see some of that diverted into more important things like health care. Of course the whole prison concept is very, very expensive. We house more prisoners (total, not per capita) than any other country in the world. How much does that cost us in money and liberty? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2...
  - Consultant32452 9y ago
    Our military spending isn't as high as some would like you to think. They always show that stat that says we spend more than the top X other countries in the world combined. That's certainly a damning statistic. But if you look at our military spending as a percentage of GDP we're not even in the top 10. And it's important to note when comparing our spending to other first world countries, other countries get their defense spending subsidized by being our ally. They can spend less because we have their backs. If they had to proportionally provide for their own defenses, we'd look even more reasonable. Believe me, I think we could cut a LOT of military spending, it's just not as crazy out of whack as popular rhetoric would have you believe.

Consultant32452 9y ago

Military spending serves two purposes. The first is as a jobs program for the poor and nominally educated. The second is a sieve through which we pour ginormous sums of money in the hopes of creating technological breakthroughs such as computers, solar panels, nuclear power, etc. None of which would've come to market nearly as quickly, if at all, without seemingly insurmountable government waste. The United States wouldn't even have been conquered by Europeans without massive government waste shipping some people across the Atlantic. It's important to keep these ideas in mind when we talk about government waste.

Clubber 9y ago
Also, military spending of WWII got us out of the depression. We haven't really stopped and no one really knows what would happen to our economy if we did. I would like to see some of that diverted into more important things like health care. Of course the whole prison concept is very, very expensive. We house more prisoners (total, not per capita) than any other country in the world. How much does that cost us in money and liberty? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2...
- Consultant32452 9y ago
  Our military spending isn't as high as some would like you to think. They always show that stat that says we spend more than the top X other countries in the world combined. That's certainly a damning statistic. But if you look at our military spending as a percentage of GDP we're not even in the top 10. And it's important to note when comparing our spending to other first world countries, other countries get their defense spending subsidized by being our ally. They can spend less because we have their backs. If they had to proportionally provide for their own defenses, we'd look even more reasonable. Believe me, I think we could cut a LOT of military spending, it's just not as crazy out of whack as popular rhetoric would have you believe.