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The EU population pays a lot for national defence and safeguarding of 'things'. Imagine Switzerland bordered Russia... would they spend more or less on nationa

The EU population pays a lot for national defence and safeguarding of 'things'. Imagine Switzerland bordered Russia... would they spend more or less on national defence? Does that mean that the EU is subsidising the defence budget of the country with the highest average wealth?

dappermanneke 3y ago
actually european defence spending is frankly laughable compared to the USA which provides most of our security guarantees
- badcppdev 3y ago
  So American tax payers are subsidising your security costs? NATO has benefits and costs. Some of the costs are financial and some are political. All of that has to be figured in when you are talking about how the super-rich benefit greatly from the current situation and do not pay proportionally
  - dappermanneke 3y ago
    uhm yes american tax payers absolutely do subsidise european security? this isn’t a new fact for you surely? one of the bigger reasons for this is that europe simply doesn’t have the economy to maintain anything even close to american spending levels. but even as a percentage of gdp most european countries are simply behind
    - badcppdev 3y ago
      We are talking about taxing the super rich in the EU to pay for a service (defence) that is currently paid by other people. I agree with you that the economies of most EU countries cannot sustain US military spending levels. My theory is that since the rich people in those EU countries are amassing wealth at a faster level than the economy is growing then we should use some of that growing wealth to ensure that the economy (and country) are properly defended. Also use the funds for education and infrastructure.
- blitzar 3y ago
  Sicilian police spending is frankly laughable compared to the Mafia which provides most of their security guarantees. It turns out the US can learn from history and other countries when they see a model that suits them.
  - dappermanneke 3y ago
    sorry but this comment is a bit too incoherent for me to parse
michpoch 3y ago
What is "EU population"? There's no EU defence budget. Most of the protection from Russia is financed by a few bordering countries (mostly Poland). The rest of the EU is way under it's 2% GDP required by NATO, so not sure if Switzerland has much to thank for.

dappermanneke 3y ago

actually european defence spending is frankly laughable compared to the USA which provides most of our security guarantees

badcppdev 3y ago
So American tax payers are subsidising your security costs? NATO has benefits and costs. Some of the costs are financial and some are political. All of that has to be figured in when you are talking about how the super-rich benefit greatly from the current situation and do not pay proportionally
- dappermanneke 3y ago
  uhm yes american tax payers absolutely do subsidise european security? this isn’t a new fact for you surely? one of the bigger reasons for this is that europe simply doesn’t have the economy to maintain anything even close to american spending levels. but even as a percentage of gdp most european countries are simply behind
  - badcppdev 3y ago
    We are talking about taxing the super rich in the EU to pay for a service (defence) that is currently paid by other people. I agree with you that the economies of most EU countries cannot sustain US military spending levels. My theory is that since the rich people in those EU countries are amassing wealth at a faster level than the economy is growing then we should use some of that growing wealth to ensure that the economy (and country) are properly defended. Also use the funds for education and infrastructure.
blitzar 3y ago
Sicilian police spending is frankly laughable compared to the Mafia which provides most of their security guarantees. It turns out the US can learn from history and other countries when they see a model that suits them.
- dappermanneke 3y ago
  sorry but this comment is a bit too incoherent for me to parse

michpoch 3y ago

What is "EU population"? There's no EU defence budget. Most of the protection from Russia is financed by a few bordering countries (mostly Poland). The rest of the EU is way under it's 2% GDP required by NATO, so not sure if Switzerland has much to thank for.