Can We Afford the Military Budget?

[Free Thinker]

Can We Afford the Military Budget?
By BRUCE BARTLETT
Bruce Bartlett held senior policy roles in the Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations and served on the staffs of Representatives Jack Kemp and Ron Paul.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/14/can-we-afford-the-military-budget/

An examination of the latest NATO data shows that in 2010, the United States spent 5.4 percent of its gross domestic product on its military — twice as much as spent by Britain and three to four times as much as most of our NATO allies, as shown in the following table.


A crucial reason for this gap is that the United States spends almost as much today as it did during the Cold War. Every other NATO country spends substantially less.

 

[Ricter]

We cannot answer the question until we know the value of the investment's return.

 

[AK Forty Seven]

No we cant.Major reason Obama has pissed off me and other democrats.I read 2 different figures on how much we spent on defense ,defense contractors and the wars last year(700 billion and almost a trillion)

Defense is the first place we should start to cut spending,200 billion a year max imo .Any new wars or military action paid for immediately through payroll tax deductions

The US being the world police needs to end

 

[Ricter]

Quote from AK Forty Seven:

No we cant.Major reason Obama has pissed off me and other democrats.I read 2 different figures on how much we spent on defense ,defense contractors and the wars last year(700 billion and almost a trillion)

Defense is the first place we should start to cut spending,200 billion a year max imo .Any new wars or military action paid for immediately through payroll tax deductions

The US being the world police needs to end

You do realize that uninterrupted supply chains carrying "discount" inputs are a return on military intervention... ? I'm not arguing that it's morally good.

 

[AK Forty Seven]

Quote from Ricter:

You do realize that uninterrupted supply chains carrying "discount" inputs are a return on military intervention... ? I'm not arguing that it's morally good.

Didn't realize that.You think its worth it ?

 

[Ricter]

Quote from AK Forty Seven:

Didn't realize that.You think its worth it ?

Not in every particular but, overall, yes.

"It is difficult to associate these horrors with the proud civilizations that created them: Sparta, Rome, The Knights of Europe, the Samurai... They worshipped strength, because it is strength that makes all other values possible. Nothing survives without it. Who knows what delicate wonders have died out of the world, for want of the strength to survive."

 

[BSAM]

Well, let's get an opinion from a non-FNZ and who is considered liberal by some and conservative by others, but who is truly a fiscal conservative....

Oh! That'd be me!

Here's the answer: (I'll be brief.)



NO!

 

[Lucrum]

Quote from Free Thinker:

Can We Afford the Military Budget?

Quote from BSAM:

Here's the answer: (I'll be brief.)

NO!

Agreed

 

[tomdavis]

I'm not sure how you'd measure ROI, but my guess is it's pretty damn low. It's time to shut most of our foreign bases (unless the hosting country wants to pay us handsomely for what we provide) and bring our troops home. Let's put our troops on our borders where we'd get a much higher ROI by keeping out cheap labor that drives down wages.

Quote from Ricter:

We cannot answer the question until we know the value of the investment's return.

 

[Ricter]

Quote from tomdavis:

I'm not sure how you'd measure ROI, but my guess is it's pretty damn low. It's time to shut most of our foreign bases (unless the hosting country wants to pay us handsomely for what we provide) and bring our troops home. Let's put our troops on our borders where we'd get a much higher ROI by keeping out cheap labor that drives down wages.

Admittedly, it is pretty hard to measure. What is the value of discouraging Chinese or Russian "adventurism" in the various resource fields around the world we count on?

At some point in colonialism's life cycle it must be true that ROI is positive, else the empire would not grow.