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I've fantasized about this as a solution before. If you tell the military that in 10 years you're cutting their budget to $250 billion and somehow manage to ins

I've fantasized about this as a solution before. If you tell the military that in 10 years you're cutting their budget to $250 billion and somehow manage to instill in them that a) you're serious and b) you will not repeal your decision, I have no doubt they would successfully adapt (just like every industry who complains about regulations have ultimately adapted). I am curious, however, in HOW they would adapt. I wouldn't want them to drop their research budget (much). Research is almost always good. For one, you could discharge some of our 1.5 Million active troops [1]. I don't really know why we have that many. That'd measurably cut down on the second largest chunk of the budget (wages) [2]. The highest is 'Operations and Maintenance' and the third highest is 'Procurement'. With a reduction of manpower, they need to procure less. They can retire many assets. I would prefer they NOT sell them to more local police, but thats a different discussion. Procurement could be done MANY times smarter. The F35 is a disaster of design by committee and if each military branch had designed their own plane, I'm sure they'd each have gotten a better one. And, of course, with less money, they have more incentive to push back on the industrial part of the complex for more reasonable prices. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces#Personnel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces#Per... [2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA_2010_Military_Budget_Spending.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USA_2010_Military_Budget_... (it's 2010, but the proportions should be similar)

chiefalchemist 8y ago
2 wks ago on one of the NPR shows these was an interview with one of the members of Congress, Dem from VA I think. He has something to do with the Russia hacking investigation. In the middle of the interview he mentions the DoD budget and more or less says - as an active member of Congress can - we're wasting too much money on 20th century warfare and not enough on 21st century (cyber) capabilities. General + POTUS Eisenhower is in heaven laughing, "I warned you. I told you so. You morons."
- eximius 8y ago
  I mean, that is also true, but if we take 50% of our '20th century' budget and spend it on '21st century' stuff, we still will spend too much. Put another way, inefficient allocation is an orthogonal problem to giving too much to the allocator.

chiefalchemist 8y ago

2 wks ago on one of the NPR shows these was an interview with one of the members of Congress, Dem from VA I think. He has something to do with the Russia hacking investigation. In the middle of the interview he mentions the DoD budget and more or less says - as an active member of Congress can - we're wasting too much money on 20th century warfare and not enough on 21st century (cyber) capabilities. General + POTUS Eisenhower is in heaven laughing, "I warned you. I told you so. You morons."

eximius 8y ago
I mean, that is also true, but if we take 50% of our '20th century' budget and spend it on '21st century' stuff, we still will spend too much. Put another way, inefficient allocation is an orthogonal problem to giving too much to the allocator.