On the other hand, I doubt China is spending $14,000 on one toilet seat, so the bloated US military budget probably doesn’t even convert to proportionate fighting capabilities. For example, all that money and the US can’t even manufacture enough artillery shells to keep Ukraine going against Russia and it’s tiny sliver of expenditure on that chart.
Russia, China, and Iran (the last of which isn’t even on that image) have hypersonic missiles, which effectively mean that aircraft carriers are now pre-sunk artificial coral reefs in a direct conflict with those countries. America does not have hypersonic missiles and keeps failing their prototype tests.
I don’t think they’ve been proven in any real sense to satisfactorily bypass the insane defences those carriers have. They’re boasted as sorta wunderwaffen at this point lol
America does not have hypersonic missiles and keeps failing their prototype tests.
I don’t know how big of a priority it is for them, considering the situation Russia, China and Iran have with aircraft carriers
Well, how many aircraft carriers did the US lose so far? I mean Russia just lost a shitton of military equipment fighting one of its former allies while the US made bank by rearming half of Europe, there must be an equivalent response from Russia then, if they are capable of it, right?
Not saying it’s right or worth the disproportionate investment, but the true value is the threat they pose keeps other countries in line (to a degree), winning the battle before it starts.
If you win a conflict decisively, then the conflict is over and weapon sales dry up. Continuous, low-level, indecisive battles are what keep the weapon dealers in business.
I’d argue that the additional funding has allowed the US to leverage the investments they’ve previously paid for in their regular budget to help Ukraine.
You cannot throw the money congress has budgeted for Ukraine at a vacuum to get nearly as much support - you need the logistics of a ready to go military industrial complex that everyone loves to hate.
Aid given to Ukraine has mainly been material the US already has. We aren’t building new weapons for them. The dollars on the aid packages is the value of the equipment.
It doesn’t work that way, each country spends it for themselves, NATO allows to combine the defense force.
The reason US spends so much is to maintain its status of super power and to allow us to live without having wars on its territory. For example what happened in Ukraine in 2014 and in 2022 is sobering experience that if you are militarily weak others will exploit the situation.
A lot of things that we are assuming are normal are possible because of it. For example. US naval force for example allowed to protect international waters allowing for global trade.
In 2006, NATO Defence Ministers agreed to commit a minimum of 2% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to defence spending to continue to ensure the Alliance’s military readiness.
Nah, even if they did their NATO % contribution the amount would be pitifully small. When you look at most of the articles that talk about “10 Best Places to Live” it’s mostly super small population, low immigration, countries with virtually no military.
Most NATO countries are between 1-2.5% of their GDP, but that’s only ~$300 billion. The US does ~3.5% which amounts to ~$811 billion.
The other NATO countries wouldn’t just need to meet their NATO 2%, they’d need to more than triple it. Even just for the US to come down to 2% would cause a ~$348 billion decrease (more than the rest of NATO combined).
If I were a European country free riding in NATO the last thing I’d be pushing is the US to reduce military spending.
BTW: The reason we don’t have socialized Healthcare is because certain party blocks it, not because we can’t afford it. If we had a single payer we would actually be spending overall less on Healthcare not more.
It’s not just the red team blocking it. The ACA was written by insurance companies. If the Dems actually wanted to push through single payer, they would be able to each time they have controlled Congress and the pres. Don’t get me wrong, red team has never been for it and are much more to blame, but the Dems carry it as well.
I mean…yeah? They’re a big tent party, they had to compromise within their ranks to get it passed, and even with a super majority, some Dem senators are more centrist than others.
The Democrats are not a leftist party, they never have been. They’re a collection of people who aren’t conservative. But that’s the best we can get until the county’s population stops being centrist and starts voting more left.
It’s always weird watching people protect Dems as if it’s a party of uniform desires. At least half of them in office agree more with Republicans than they do with the progressive members of the same party.
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