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Our economies also have this tendency to siphon off surplus and spend it on expensive military projects such as wars. There is the general year in year out expe

Our economies also have this tendency to siphon off surplus and spend it on expensive military projects such as wars. There is the general year in year out expenditure on new military toys, keeping the nuclear 'deterrent' up to date and keeping those boys polishing their boots. We don't get a proper tax breakdown on this expenditure so I would only be guessing as to how much is really spent. On top of this regular expenditure are the billions that have been spent bombing Afghanistan and Iraq to pieces. We have been saddled with debt to pay for that and it won't be the politicians that will be personally paying that off. Although a lot of people don't wish to see it that way, war is a racket. Nobody would bother unless there was money to be made. The waste goes far beyond the lives lost and the taxes diverted, there is also a real loss of valuable materials and energy resources. It is all an incredible waste yet we are always told that 'defence' is good for jobs. Given the default option for siphoning off the 'fruits of capitalist surplus' is more and more bombs and weapons, that is kind of what we all work for in our variously inane jobs. Isn't this a fantastic situation?

mahyarm 13y ago
Military expenditures are about %4.2 [1] of GDP, compared lets say the financial sector which has increased to %8.4 from it's under %3 level in the 1950s[2]. Or the healthcare sector, which consumes 17.4% of GDP in the USA[3]. Compared to the typical average of ~%11 for countries with socialized medicine. Most of the US tax expenditure goes towards social security and medicare. But your talking about a governmental system that can print it's own currency and is the reserve currency of the world, so even that is a bit wonky to think about. If the USA fixed it's regulatory health care mess, broke the artificial supply constraints on doctors, made medical devices not have %1000+ profit margins and socialized their healthcare, they would save more GDP than liquidating the US military. Shrinking the financial sector back to its 1950's % of GDP would also pay for the military. Our relatively small software industry is under %2 in 2007.[4] 1. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_Stat... 4. http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-GDP-is-the-US-software-industry http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-GDP-is-the-US-softwa...

mahyarm 13y ago

Military expenditures are about %4.2 [1] of GDP, compared lets say the financial sector which has increased to %8.4 from it's under %3 level in the 1950s[2]. Or the healthcare sector, which consumes 17.4% of GDP in the USA[3]. Compared to the typical average of ~%11 for countries with socialized medicine. Most of the US tax expenditure goes towards social security and medicare. But your talking about a governmental system that can print it's own currency and is the reserve currency of the world, so even that is a bit wonky to think about. If the USA fixed it's regulatory health care mess, broke the artificial supply constraints on doctors, made medical devices not have %1000+ profit margins and socialized their healthcare, they would save more GDP than liquidating the US military. Shrinking the financial sector back to its 1950's % of GDP would also pay for the military. Our relatively small software industry is under %2 in 2007.[4] 1. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/MS.MIL.XPND.GD.ZS 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financialization 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_care_in_the_United_Stat... 4. http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-GDP-is-the-US-software-industry http://www.quora.com/What-percentage-of-GDP-is-the-US-softwa...