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Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%. If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them
by jki275 8y ago
Military in the US is 18% of the budget. SS and medicare are something like 70%.
If you want to live in a country without a military there are a bunch of them. I wouldn't personally want to live in any of them, but of course everyone is free to do as they see fit.
- bufferoverflow 8y agoSwitzerland has no military, it's not that bad.
- louisswiss 8y agoSwitzerland definitely does have a military.
- ceejayoz 8y agoFun fact, though: their air force has office hours. https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/feb/19/swiss-air-force-ethiopian-airlines-hijacking-office-hours https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2014/feb/19/swis...
- thecopy 8y agoSwitzerland has mandatory conscription.
- dagw 8y agoSwitzerland not only has a military, it has mandatory military service for all males.
- blattimwind 8y agoSwitzerland actually even has military ships. [1] [1] Patrol boats of the Grenzwachtkorps.
- isostatic 8y agoIceland has no military spending Ireland spends 0.4% of it's GDP on military Switzerland 0.7% Sweden 1% Finland (who have actually been invaded in living memory) 1.4% The U.S. spent $574b on defence and $79b on veterans last year, both increased way above inflation - total of $57b. Education by comparision dropped by 14%, or $9b. Health by 18% or $15b. The largest slice of the U.S. budget is healthcare (mainly medicare/medicaid). This cost $5,500 per citizen, despite only covering 1/3rd of the population. This is because the U.S. health care system is fundamentally broken, and costs about 3 times as much per person in europe.
- seibelj 8y agoWithout the US military all of these countries would be required to fund a large military to avoid being conquered. Pax Americana has allowed Europe to shirk their responsibilities, but some people would argue its worth it to the US.
- cryoshon 8y agoi keep seeing this canard whenever military spending arises. tell me: who would invade? germany has no ambition to conquer france. poland has a buffer to protect it from the russians. estonia is in NATO. seriously, what threat is going to suddenly gobble up europe? oh yeah, and where are the millions of US troops currently stationed in europe that would supposedly stop the threat?
- keiferski 8y agoRussia would absolutely invade / interfere with ex-Soviet states if they didn’t have the protection of NATO. See: Ukraine.
- jki275 8y agoIt doesn't take millions to make that kind of aggression politically unpalatable.
- seibelj 8y agoI believe you are quite foolish if you think an opportunistic power wouldn't invade if they had the opportunity.