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Most people buy the meme that the US has an overblown military budget because it's a prevalent trope in movies/shows and because when they see the raw number th

Most people buy the meme that the US has an overblown military budget because it's a prevalent trope in movies/shows and because when they see the raw number they fail to account for how stupidly enormous the US federal budget is. If you told them it was only around 11ish percent and that most of that was boring stuff like troop salaries they wouldn't believe you. They simply see the cost of a new drone and fail to appreciate the vast sum of money that could be recouped from the tech. Edit: Since the point score on this comment has oscillated up and down fairly quickly, here is a link from the World Bank detailing both total military spending and spending relative to gdp for various/most countries. A lack of consensus is fine but opinions should be informed when possible: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS

caseysoftware 6y ago
The comment didn't even say "overblown" which - as an opinion - could be debated. Their comment was "the largest item in the federal budget" which takes near-zero effort to determine if it's true or not.
- e7r73uejruf 6y ago
  This is true, I muddied the waters to no benefit.
mrastro 6y ago
Memes often have at least a grain of truth to them and the US military budget is no exception. ~3.2% of US GDP is spent on the military compared to a worldwide average of ~2.1% [1] That means, even relative to other countries , the US is spending 50% more. Anecdotally, you may have seen stories like the military paying 10k for a toilet cover. It's accurate to say that the US has a overblown military budget. In my opinion, this money would be far better spent on universal healthcare like other reasonable countries do. [1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-forces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-...
- refurb 6y ago
  As an American Id love to cut the defense budget by half and pull all our troops out of Europe. They can handle it themselves just fine. Some serious savings there.

caseysoftware 6y ago

The comment didn't even say "overblown" which - as an opinion - could be debated. Their comment was "the largest item in the federal budget" which takes near-zero effort to determine if it's true or not.

e7r73uejruf 6y ago
This is true, I muddied the waters to no benefit.

mrastro 6y ago

Memes often have at least a grain of truth to them and the US military budget is no exception. ~3.2% of US GDP is spent on the military compared to a worldwide average of ~2.1% [1] That means, even relative to other countries , the US is spending 50% more. Anecdotally, you may have seen stories like the military paying 10k for a toilet cover. It's accurate to say that the US has a overblown military budget. In my opinion, this money would be far better spent on universal healthcare like other reasonable countries do. [1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_recent_value_desc=true https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS?most_... [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-forces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-...

refurb 6y ago
As an American Id love to cut the defense budget by half and pull all our troops out of Europe. They can handle it themselves just fine. Some serious savings there.