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This isn't about weapons, it's about jobs. Keep in mind that a countries military is typically the largest employment organization in an entire country. More s

This isn't about weapons, it's about jobs. Keep in mind that a countries military is typically the largest employment organization in an entire country. More so than any private company. The US alone has an annual military budget of $801B [0] (for planes, tanks, etc AND salaries) but also employes 2.2M [1] people. If you assumed that all of the military spend went to salaries (and didn't go to tanks, planes, buildings, etc) that would be an avg salary of ~$350k/person. [0] this article [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Armed_Forces

rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago
>but also employes 2.2M [1] people And how is this beneficial to society, other than preparing/justifying wars, spending money on expensive weapons and equipment, and collecting salaries? If creating jobs is good enough, we'd better pay armies of environmentalists to finally bifurcate from our current catastrophic course.
- tiffanyh 5y ago
  Your comments are very politically charged and I'd rather avoid participating in such discourse. But I'll just say that I'm sure Ukraine right now is very appreciative of the help they have (and continue) to receive from the same parties you're dismissing.
  - rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago
    Military expenditure is nothing but political.
was_a_dev 5y ago
It would be really interesting to see a breakdown of military spending per employee. For the US, 2.2M employees equates to ~1.38% of the employed population [1]. For the UK, the military isn't the largest employer, the NHS is, which isn't surprising. The British Armed Forces employ 148K [2] people which is ~0.46% of the employed population [2]. Would be interesting to see the worldwide trends. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/579773/number-of-personnel-in-uk-armed-forces/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/579773/number-of-personn... [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/281998/employment-figures-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/281998/employment-figure...
- tiffanyh 5y ago
  Looks like out of the Top 10 Worlds Largest Employers, 3 are government militaries (US, China, India). UK/NHS is also on that top 10 list. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-military-is-the-largest-employer-in-the-world-2015-06-17 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-military-is-the-largest...
robotnikman 5y ago
To also play devils advocate here, it is one of the few things keeping many kinds of manufacturing alive in the US itself, such as metalworking and ship building. To lose all the knowledge that comes with that would be a disaster, as we would have to rely on other, possible hostile, countries to provide those goods. At least by having some of this expertise and machinery inside the country we could ramp up training and production if needed.

rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago

>but also employes 2.2M [1] people And how is this beneficial to society, other than preparing/justifying wars, spending money on expensive weapons and equipment, and collecting salaries? If creating jobs is good enough, we'd better pay armies of environmentalists to finally bifurcate from our current catastrophic course.

tiffanyh 5y ago
Your comments are very politically charged and I'd rather avoid participating in such discourse. But I'll just say that I'm sure Ukraine right now is very appreciative of the help they have (and continue) to receive from the same parties you're dismissing.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 5y ago
  Military expenditure is nothing but political.

was_a_dev 5y ago

It would be really interesting to see a breakdown of military spending per employee. For the US, 2.2M employees equates to ~1.38% of the employed population [1]. For the UK, the military isn't the largest employer, the NHS is, which isn't surprising. The British Armed Forces employ 148K [2] people which is ~0.46% of the employed population [2]. Would be interesting to see the worldwide trends. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the-united-states/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/269959/employment-in-the... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/579773/number-of-personnel-in-uk-armed-forces/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/579773/number-of-personn... [3] https://www.statista.com/statistics/281998/employment-figures-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/281998/employment-figure...

tiffanyh 5y ago
Looks like out of the Top 10 Worlds Largest Employers, 3 are government militaries (US, China, India). UK/NHS is also on that top 10 list. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-military-is-the-largest-employer-in-the-world-2015-06-17 https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-military-is-the-largest...

robotnikman 5y ago

To also play devils advocate here, it is one of the few things keeping many kinds of manufacturing alive in the US itself, such as metalworking and ship building. To lose all the knowledge that comes with that would be a disaster, as we would have to rely on other, possible hostile, countries to provide those goods. At least by having some of this expertise and machinery inside the country we could ramp up training and production if needed.