5 ms·
> and the outrageous 800 billions for “defense”. Cancelling student debt is a lot cheaper than the F-35 program I think you are greatly underestimating or at l
by umvi 4y ago
> and the outrageous 800 billions for “defense”. Cancelling student debt is a lot cheaper than the F-35 program
I think you are greatly underestimating or at least greatly under-appreciating the role of USA defense on the world stage. Why do you think EU and other USA allies can get away with spending so little on defense? They are basically outsourcing defense and weapons development to us. F-35 development went way over budget, but actually making one now is relatively cheap and will continue to get cheaper - cheap enough that an ally like Israel could purchase a dozen as a part of their smaller defense budget in the coming decades like they currently do with F-16s. Why is the global shipping industry so much lower risk that it was in decades past? The US Navy protecting shipping lanes is largely to thank.
I'm sure US DoD is worthy of many of its criticisms, including high budget, but it irks me to see the baby so eagerly thrown out with the bathwater at every opportunity.
- jackson1442 4y agoOk, let's have everyone pay their fair share (as a portion of GDP) then. We have plenty of internal improvements to work on over here.
- barelysapient 4y agoYes exactly. And if they don't, lets leave NATO and stop with this eternal world policing at the human expense of our own populace.
- zionic 4y agoThe EU gets all the perks of being a vassal state with absolutely none of the taxes. The entire post-WWII world order has been to their benefit at our expense. I’d rather my tax dollars go towards state run health insurance than protecting Germany from Russian shenanigans.
- gizajob 4y agoYeah but the federal reserve has the world's biggest printing press, paid for by the entire globe having to trade in dollars, which keeps your economy afloat, so there's no need for tears.
- QuarterReptile 4y agoI have no love for their repeated failure to live up to the minimal demands made on them, but let's not discount how cool it was to not be a charred wreck in 1945...
- 7speter 4y agoAnd the fact that we’ve all been able to sleep peacefully without an anti democratic, nationalistic power invading New York City or DC since then. Oh the things we take for granted.
- pbourke 4y ago> The entire post-WWII world order has been to their benefit at our expense. The USD is the world’s reserve currency and the US has benefitted enormously from 75 years of peace in Europe.
- llbeansandrice 4y agoThe militaristic superiority of the US obviously has benefits. So does forgiving student loan debt. The above comment didn't say that the US should become isolationist and no baby was thrown out with the bath water. That's an assumption you've made yourself. > I'm sure US DoD is worthy of many of its criticisms, including high budget, That's precisely all that's been criticized here. The high budget of the DoD.
- umvi 4y ago> That's precisely all that's been criticized here. At least for me, the scare quotes around "defense" additionally imply that the US isn't really getting anything defense-related in return for the high budget - as if the money is just being wasted with no ROI.
- acover 4y agoThe US spends 3.4% of GDP on defense. All NATO nations spend at least 2%. https://www.statista.com/statistics/262742/countries-with-the-highest-military-spending/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/262742/countries-with-th...