3 ms·

Well, your forefathers were busy stuffing people in ovens, so we had to spend a lot of money to defeat your country, rebuild, and then protect it. You can talk

Well, your forefathers were busy stuffing people in ovens, so we had to spend a lot of money to defeat your country, rebuild, and then protect it. You can talk about the USA once Germany starts spending 4.2% of its GDP on defence versus the present 1.15%. http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/us-defense-spending-subsidizes-european-freeriding-welfare-states http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/us-defense-spend...

mkr-hn 13y ago
We're wealthy enough as a country to occupy the planet and ensure basic dignity for a few hundred million people at the same time.
lostlogin 13y ago
Umm.. So much wrong with this comment. And the time German defense spending was highest was surely during the time you cite. This was also the period of America ascending rapidly on the world stage and becoming a superpower. Defense spending isn't what makes a country great to live in. The armed forces as a social welfare system isn't really ideal.
innguest 13y ago
Can you clarify the "so we had to" part? Why did the US have to do it while other countries didn't have to do it? (Not to mention your tone is uncalled for).
- refurb 13y ago
  I guess the question is who else could have done it?
dkuntz2 13y ago
And the US didn't commit atrocities in that war? The US also rounded up people based on their ethnicity. The US also dropped not one but two nuclear bombs on Japan killing, by some estimates, a quarter million people the vast majority of which were civilians. Additionally, half of Germany wasn't rebuilt and protected by the US. And who cares what percent of the budget is spent on defense. A larger defense percentage means less is going to social services and other services dedicated to the betterment of society, instead of implements of war and destruction.
- refurb 13y ago
  And the US didn't commit atrocities in that war? Here we go again! I see this all the time on HN. Insinuating two things are equivalent when they are not even close. Yes the US did bad things like rounding up the Japanese and putting them in internment camps, but no, this comes nowhere close to what the Nazi regime did.
  - dkuntz2 13y ago
    And the Nazi regime is gone ... and the US is basically the same as it was... Germany is extra super scared about becoming Nazis again, because they were Nazis. The US has no predilections against doing the same thing again.
- lostlogin 13y ago
  I'm in agreement with you. I think it should be notes that the US military does have a fairly large social welfare component, education, health etc. Somehow this is ok (its hairy chested military spending!). But social welfare in a more transparent form doesn't get through. I can't find the great thing I read on this recently, but here is the Wikipedia entry on The Hidden Welfare State. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_welfare_state http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_welfare_state

mkr-hn 13y ago

We're wealthy enough as a country to occupy the planet and ensure basic dignity for a few hundred million people at the same time.

lostlogin 13y ago

Umm.. So much wrong with this comment. And the time German defense spending was highest was surely during the time you cite. This was also the period of America ascending rapidly on the world stage and becoming a superpower. Defense spending isn't what makes a country great to live in. The armed forces as a social welfare system isn't really ideal.

innguest 13y ago

Can you clarify the "so we had to" part? Why did the US have to do it while other countries didn't have to do it? (Not to mention your tone is uncalled for).

refurb 13y ago
I guess the question is who else could have done it?

dkuntz2 13y ago

And the US didn't commit atrocities in that war? The US also rounded up people based on their ethnicity. The US also dropped not one but two nuclear bombs on Japan killing, by some estimates, a quarter million people the vast majority of which were civilians. Additionally, half of Germany wasn't rebuilt and protected by the US. And who cares what percent of the budget is spent on defense. A larger defense percentage means less is going to social services and other services dedicated to the betterment of society, instead of implements of war and destruction.

refurb 13y ago
And the US didn't commit atrocities in that war? Here we go again! I see this all the time on HN. Insinuating two things are equivalent when they are not even close. Yes the US did bad things like rounding up the Japanese and putting them in internment camps, but no, this comes nowhere close to what the Nazi regime did.
- dkuntz2 13y ago
  And the Nazi regime is gone ... and the US is basically the same as it was... Germany is extra super scared about becoming Nazis again, because they were Nazis. The US has no predilections against doing the same thing again.
lostlogin 13y ago
I'm in agreement with you. I think it should be notes that the US military does have a fairly large social welfare component, education, health etc. Somehow this is ok (its hairy chested military spending!). But social welfare in a more transparent form doesn't get through. I can't find the great thing I read on this recently, but here is the Wikipedia entry on The Hidden Welfare State. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_welfare_state http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_welfare_state