4 ms·

I literally do not care. The US spent almost 700 billion dollars on defense last year. If we're worried about how much the US costs, let's start there.

• criddell 6y ago
  Do we really have to choose just one of those?
• bpodgursky 6y ago
  Those 700 billion dollars went into salaries and healthcare for over a million people. And to a less direct degree, buying US-manufactured high-tech armaments. Maybe you think it's all a dumb thing to spend money on, but the US Army is in a lot of ways a UBI for low-education Americans. And one way or the other, the money is almost all staying in the US, stimulating some industry or another. Sending $36B overseas to Nigeria and Cyprus accomplishes nothing. It's not even comparable.
  • thesuitonym 6y ago
    You can still drastically cut defense spending without touching a single servicemember's pay or benefits. For instance: Instead of buying 7000 missiles, we could have saved 600 million dollars.
    • bpodgursky 6y ago
      The federal government would save 600 million dollars, and Raytheon employees would lose them. Entirely fair to say "well Raytheon factories should be building [tractors / ventilators / etc] instead, but it's not like the money is being shoveled into a hole and buried. The money stays in the US, backstopping US manufacturing. Sending that $600 million to overseas scammers would still accomplish nothing, whereas "wasteful" defense spending does.