Despite the downvotes this is getting because of the "fascist state" hyperbole, this is a totally valid remark if the goal is to actually answer the parent's qu

Despite the downvotes this is getting because of the "fascist state" hyperbole, this is a totally valid remark if the goal is to actually answer the parent's question. Most country-scale decisions in the US and other similar states are so removed from any democratic input that interpreting them as coming from a generalized "we" is a fallacy. A more relevant way to ask the question would be: > "Why do our leaders spend so many trillions of dollars in wars ..." Phrased this way, it's easier to guess what kind of incentives might have pushed every government since the Lumières [1] to allocate their funds in a different way than you're suggesting. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumi%C3%A8res https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lumi%C3%A8res