4 ms·

1 500 000 000 000 ----------------- = 15 000 000 100 000 That would, in theory, result in 8-figure jobs for every serviceman. Is that right?

1 500 000 000 000 ----------------- = 15 000 000 100 000 That would, in theory, result in 8-figure jobs for every serviceman. Is that right? Where is the excess going?

bluedino 9y ago
The military budget is $600B. There are 1.2M active and 0.8M reserve servicemen. Like any old organization, they have legacy costs: healthcare and pensions for former and retired servicemen are phenomenal.
- vacri 9y ago
  I thought healthcare and pensions weren't included in that $600B, but farmed out to other parts of the budget?
  - torstenvl 9y ago
    Nope. Pensions (technically, retired pay and retainer pay) come out of the MILPERS budget. Military retirees are still military personnel, and generally exist within one of three statuses within the reserve component of the last armed service in which they served. For Navy personnel, for example, they are on the Retired List, the Retired Reserve, or the Fleet Reserve.
jdietrich 9y ago
I was obliquely referring to the F-35 program, which is forecast to cost ~$1.5tn and is estimated to have created ~100,000 jobs within the services and via contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. The F-35 is a dreadful aircraft that is grounded indefinitely because it keeps trying to suffocate pilots, but it has kept a lot of factories busy and made a lot of senators happy. Lockheed Martin proudly trumpet the fact that there are suppliers for the F-35 project in 46 states - that's a lot of pork to go around. The US defence budget is lousy with pork-barrel projects. The Army Chief of Staff has repeatedly asked Congress to stop buying new Abrams tanks, but the tanks keep rolling off the production line nonetheless. The services might be facing deep sequestration cuts, but there's been no let-up in the procurement of expensive and unnecessary hardware. http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-approves-useless-military-spending-2013-5?IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-approves-useless-mil... http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/28/pentagon-tells-congress-to-stop-buying-equipment-it-doesnt-need.html http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/28/pentagon-tells...
- TeMPOraL 9y ago
  > The Army Chief of Staff has repeatedly asked Congress to stop buying new Abrams tanks, but the tanks keep rolling off the production line nonetheless. Wow. One has to wonder when some of those tanks will eventually reach regular law enforcement, like lots of other military hardware tends to.

1 500 000 000 000 ----------------- = 15 000 000 100 000 That would, in theory, result in 8-figure jobs for every serviceman. Is that right? Where is the excess going?

bluedino 9y ago

The military budget is $600B. There are 1.2M active and 0.8M reserve servicemen. Like any old organization, they have legacy costs: healthcare and pensions for former and retired servicemen are phenomenal.

vacri 9y ago
I thought healthcare and pensions weren't included in that $600B, but farmed out to other parts of the budget?
- torstenvl 9y ago
  Nope. Pensions (technically, retired pay and retainer pay) come out of the MILPERS budget. Military retirees are still military personnel, and generally exist within one of three statuses within the reserve component of the last armed service in which they served. For Navy personnel, for example, they are on the Retired List, the Retired Reserve, or the Fleet Reserve.

jdietrich 9y ago

I was obliquely referring to the F-35 program, which is forecast to cost ~$1.5tn and is estimated to have created ~100,000 jobs within the services and via contractors, subcontractors and suppliers. The F-35 is a dreadful aircraft that is grounded indefinitely because it keeps trying to suffocate pilots, but it has kept a lot of factories busy and made a lot of senators happy. Lockheed Martin proudly trumpet the fact that there are suppliers for the F-35 project in 46 states - that's a lot of pork to go around. The US defence budget is lousy with pork-barrel projects. The Army Chief of Staff has repeatedly asked Congress to stop buying new Abrams tanks, but the tanks keep rolling off the production line nonetheless. The services might be facing deep sequestration cuts, but there's been no let-up in the procurement of expensive and unnecessary hardware. http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-approves-useless-military-spending-2013-5?IR=T http://www.businessinsider.com/congress-approves-useless-mil... http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/28/pentagon-tells-congress-to-stop-buying-equipment-it-doesnt-need.html http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/01/28/pentagon-tells...

TeMPOraL 9y ago
> The Army Chief of Staff has repeatedly asked Congress to stop buying new Abrams tanks, but the tanks keep rolling off the production line nonetheless. Wow. One has to wonder when some of those tanks will eventually reach regular law enforcement, like lots of other military hardware tends to.