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America is not spending trillions on their military, and even then it's still barely affordable. To give every American 12k per year would cost about 10 times t

by Gunax 7y ago

America is not spending trillions on their military, and even then it's still barely affordable. To give every American 12k per year would cost about 10 times the military budget (7 trillion versus 780 billion). And that's before we even discuss shenanigans like debt jubilees and free healthcare. Even dramatic cuts to the us military barely make a dent to these kinds of spending proposals.

grecy 7y ago
> America is not spending trillions on their military Over many years they certainly are. > and even then it's still barely affordable By definition everything is barely affordable, because the government will always spend everything they get. Obviously if they wanted to - for example - spend $500 billion welcoming the little green men from mars they would have to cut back something else. That's not to say it's not worthwhile, but it would be, by definition "barely affordable". > To give every American 12k per year would cost about 10 times the military budget (7 trillion versus 780 billion). And that's before we even discuss shenanigans like debt jubilees and free healthcare It fascinates me that so many countries on the planet do things like liberal welfare and 'free' healthcare, yet the richest country in the world by a very wide margin calls it shenanigans. It feels like you don't want to believe in reality.
- uk_programmer 7y ago
  > It fascinates me that so many countries on the planet do things like liberal welfare and 'free' healthcare, yet the richest country in the world by a very wide margin calls it shenanigans. Have you ever considered that it would contribute to why it is the richest country in the world?
- dang 7y ago
  Would you please stop it with the flamewar comments? We had to ask you about this just recently. That last sentence is completely unacceptable regardless of how wrong someone is or it feels like they are. Being right matters less than destroying the commons here. And nationalistic swipes, which we've also had to warn you about before, are emphatically not ok. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
paulmd 7y ago
The military budget isn't the entirety of military spending. It doesn't include the VA budget, the DOE budget (maintaining those nukes), the actual cost of wars themselves, etc. Adding up all the parts, it's pretty close to a trillion a year - about 933 billion. https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320 https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-ch...
kwhitefoot 7y ago
The money paid as UBI doesn't disappear from the economy. People on low incomes spend everything they have and that money supports local shops, bars, restaurants, factories, etc.

by Gunax 7y ago

grecy 7y ago

> America is not spending trillions on their military Over many years they certainly are. > and even then it's still barely affordable By definition everything is barely affordable, because the government will always spend everything they get. Obviously if they wanted to - for example - spend $500 billion welcoming the little green men from mars they would have to cut back something else. That's not to say it's not worthwhile, but it would be, by definition "barely affordable". > To give every American 12k per year would cost about 10 times the military budget (7 trillion versus 780 billion). And that's before we even discuss shenanigans like debt jubilees and free healthcare It fascinates me that so many countries on the planet do things like liberal welfare and 'free' healthcare, yet the richest country in the world by a very wide margin calls it shenanigans. It feels like you don't want to believe in reality.

uk_programmer 7y ago
> It fascinates me that so many countries on the planet do things like liberal welfare and 'free' healthcare, yet the richest country in the world by a very wide margin calls it shenanigans. Have you ever considered that it would contribute to why it is the richest country in the world?
dang 7y ago
Would you please stop it with the flamewar comments? We had to ask you about this just recently. That last sentence is completely unacceptable regardless of how wrong someone is or it feels like they are. Being right matters less than destroying the commons here. And nationalistic swipes, which we've also had to warn you about before, are emphatically not ok. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

paulmd 7y ago

The military budget isn't the entirety of military spending. It doesn't include the VA budget, the DOE budget (maintaining those nukes), the actual cost of wars themselves, etc. Adding up all the parts, it's pretty close to a trillion a year - about 933 billion. https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320 https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-ch...

kwhitefoot 7y ago

The money paid as UBI doesn't disappear from the economy. People on low incomes spend everything they have and that money supports local shops, bars, restaurants, factories, etc.