The US Military is Wasting our Money

The U.S. Military is over-bloated,
over-expensive, and wasting our money

The 2019 US military budget was $732 billion. For comparison, China's budget was $261 billion and Russia's military budget was $65 billion. And for 2022, the US military budget is... $858 Billion !
— That is a raise of 17% in Just 3 Years!

What the heck is going on??

According to the independent think tank, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (sipri.org), which monitors developments in military expenditure worldwide, total world military expenditure rose to $1.9 trillion in 2019.

The five largest defense spenders in 2019 were the United States, China, India, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, and these five countries accounted for 62% of all global defense expenditures.

The US Military Spending for 2019 was $732 billion, which accounted for 38% of all global military spending. The US spent almost as much on its military in 2019 as the next 10 highest spenders combined.

Here is the ranking for 2019:

1 United States $732 B

2 China $261 B

3 India $71 B

4 Russia $65 B

5 Saudi Arabia $62 B

6 France $50 B

7 Germany $49 B

8 United Kingdom $49 B

9 Japan $48 B

10 South Korea $44 B

see data for all countries

So Why is the US Military Budget so much higher than all the other countries?

It's almost as much as the next 10 highest spending countries combined!

What are the reasons for this insanely ridiculous amount of money spent on the Military?

Here are 4 problems to consider:

(a) an over-zealous Foreign Policy and an entrenched fallacy of 'nuclear deterrence'.

(b) campaign contributions and lobbying from the Military and their private industry contractors. Defense Contractors spend millions to influence Congress, and the Department of Defense is full of industry insiders.

(c) congressional resistance to cuts in the military budget that will result in backlash from the military-related businesses in their state.

(d) the military and weapons industry have successfully brainwashed voters in both major political parties that this Huge Spending and its Huge Contracts are all necessary to defend the country.

The Need for Accountability
in Military Spending and Contracts

Because of its enormous influence on Congress and the Executive Branch, the Military can resist independent Audits and hide questionable contracts to private corporations. And during the long decade of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, there has been feeble transparency and accountability of how the many many billions were spent, much of which went to private contractors (corporations).

4 Ways the Pentagon collaborates with
weapons-military Industries

• The Department of Defense is swarming with industry insiders.
• Defense Contractors spend millions to influence Congress.
• The Pentagon 'loses track' of many billions of $$.
• The Pentagon gives millions to companies for absurdly overpriced parts, while a complete audit of all its transactions has been consistently resisted.

Also see... Four ways the Pentagon is wasting your tax-dollars

Congress needs to Cut Back
on large government contracts
to the weapons-military Industry

Alternative Uses of the Military Budget

War and preparation for war
use up a huge amount of money
which could be used to help people

If the Government remains on its present track, then over 7400 Billion Dollars will be allocated in the next 10 years for the Military 'Defense' and Weapons modernization.

This is A LOT OF MONEY !

Wasted Opportunity Costs

An 'opportunity cost' is the lost benefit from using a limited amount of capital on one particular investment rather than an alternative investment. That is, by using one's capital on option 'A', one has 'lost an opportunity' to use this same amount of money on option 'B' and thus have lost the potential benefits of option 'B'. This opportunity cost is not normally counted in the costs of option 'A', though it can be regarded as hidden in that choice of how to spend a limited amount of available capital, because one has not used that money for the benefits of alternative 'B'.

We can use this freed-up Money to create Real National Security and World Peace.

True security can never come without good jobs, clean energy, accessible health care and education. True international peace cannot come without international cooperation, fair trade, and world peace agreements. Moreover, true global security – physical, emotional and mental security – is reduced by the existence of nuclear and other mass-destructive weapons and by nuclear threats to other nations, and even by the doctrine of 'deterrence' – 'keeping our country safe from nuclear attack by threatening to destroy the attacker with an even larger attack'.

It’s time to change our national priorities.

It's time to move our Public Money, from unnecessary military and weapons companies into importantly needed public services and to help all Americans have a better life.

Read... Steps for Reducing Military Spending

Let's Spend our tax money on Real Needs
rather than on weapons and military

Instead of wasting our money on a super-expensive Military and improving our Weapons of Mass-destruction – we could be using these tax dollars for socially and environmentally beneficial projects.

For example, we could make sure that all people have enough food, clean water, adequate shelter, needed healthcare and a high-quality education, along with assurances of elderly care and childcare, and also provide job training and community employment if needed, and provide low-interest loans to socially and environmentally beneficial businesses. And we can also make sure that all laid-off military personnel are assisted with further education and training to acquire new jobs in the private or public sector.

We could use this money for investing in commonly needed public services and improving our national infrastructure for commerce and transportation, as well as helping local economies transition towards using low-carbon green energies, in order to avoid upheavals and disasters of an increasing climate-change.

What are some Better Uses of money?

The expense of weapons and military is so huge that it boggles the mind. Globally, over the next 10 years, governments of nine nations will invest more than $1 trillion into the modernization, development, and maintenance of nuclear weapons.

Just think of the many alternative uses to which this money could be better spent? And when we consider the better alternative uses of this money, we can see that – investing in stronger militaries and nuclear weapons is a Huge Waste of money and it is a Huge opportunity cost, because instead this vast global capital could be used to bring real-security into the world, by spending money on solving global human needs and protecting our planetary environment and climate.

Instead of using 1,000 billion dollars on improving armed militaries and nuclear weapons, this money could be used for improving global healthcare, environmental cleanup, eco-restoration, recreation areas, education, skills-training, and small business loans.

About half of all the money spent in the world on military and weapon expenses is spent by the U.S. government and American taxpayers. But instead, we could use this same money for investing in public services and common social needs, as well as helping our economy transition towards using low-carbon energies and fuels in order to avoid the inevitable disasters and upheavals of an increasing climate-change.

So as a nation, we could re-direct government/public funds into better aims than the development of more and better nuclear weapons, better aims that have greater benefit to us people and towards improving our natural environment; such as, solving climate change and pollution with a stronger taxation, solving global conflicts through peace negotiations rather than with military threats.

We could use this money on –

• improved healthcare and health protections
• no-interest college loans and free job skills training
• improved public education and free childcare
• urban improvements and small business loans
• loans and subsidies for clean energy production
• national infrastructure of energy, communication, and transportation
• environmental cleanup and eco-restoration
• creating more recreation areas and wildlife areas

Alternative Uses of Money

▪ $200 billion over the next 10 years could be used to provide a great pre-school education for every 3-and 4-year old in America.

▪ $60 billion over the next 10 years could be used to provide two years of free college education for all graduating HS students.

▪ $80 billion over the next 10 years could be used for converting America's carbon-emitting energy-production to clean energy-production, to comply with a bold Clean Power Plan. And this expense will be offset in the long-term by savings in climate-change mitigation.

▪ $200 Billion over the next 10 years could be used for improving highways, railways, bridges, dams, and other national infrastructure, including the energy grid.

▪ 200 billion over the next 10 years could be used for improving healthcare, vaccines, and medical research.

Read... Finding Better Uses of 740 Billion Dollars

There are better uses of world capital

All nations combined spend nearly $2 trillion (2,000 billion dollars) every year on militaries and weapons, and about half of this is spent by the U.S. Taxpayers.

In addition, over the next 10 years governments of nine nuclear nations – US, UK, Russia, China, France, Israel, North Korea, India and Pakistan – are planning to spend over 1,000 billion dollars on the modernization, development, deployment and maintenance of nuclear weapons. This enormous amount of money will be spent preparing for a nuclear war – which, if it happens, will kill millions of innocent people, destroy important global ecosystems and further accelerate climate change. So, instead of spending this financial capital on solving problems of poverty, health, food, water, and climate; this needed money will be used for improving weapons that will destroy millions of people and the planet !

The Expense of building and maintaining weapons and militaries is so Huge that it boggles the mind.

Does this make any rational sense? Of course not. But it does make weapons corporations and their investors very rich ... at everyone else's expense.

Alternatively, this huge amount of global capital could be used to bring Real Security to the world – by solving human needs and protecting the global environment. These funds could be used for improving global health, education, economic development, and for solving world hunger, diseases, and climate change.

For when nations cooperate towards mutual Prosperity, then no longer is there any reason to attack or destroy one another.

Ultimately, nuclear weapons, and the vast spending needed to keep improving and maintaining them, are a dead-end road – that leads to nowhere except mass-destruction and global suicide. Threatening other nations with Nuclear Destruction cannot create a peaceful world, nor can it ever assure national security. A peaceful world will be created by international cooperation and mutual helpfulness, and by diplomacy; not by nuclear arsenals and threats of mass-destruction.

Using this money for Real Global Needs

As already stated above, the total global spending on militaries and weapons is estimated to be about $2 trillion (1,000 billion dollars).

So let’s examine the potential benefits of diverting just half of this money ($1,000 billion) towards Real Needs – such as humanitarian and environmental needs.

Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute estimated various costs for: ending hunger in the world ($30 billion/yr), ensuring clean water for everyone ($11 billion/yr.), preserving topsoil ($24 billion/yr.), protecting biodiversity ($31 billion/yr.), restoring fisheries ($13 billion/yr.), stabilizing water tables ($10 billion/yr.), eradicating adult illiteracy ($4 billion/yr. providing basic health care ($33 billion/yr.) and universal primary education ($10 billion/yr.) in developing countries.

Read... $30 billion a year will eradicate world hunger

Just the $13 billion contract for improving the U.S. Minuteman missile could instead be used to developing safe drinking water and sanitation for everyone in the whole world. Read.. Clean Drinking Water & Sanitation for everyone

Just in the U.S., about $70 billion/yr. would eliminate poverty. Other social uses of this huge amount of money might be to provide a guaranteed adequate income for everyone, guaranteed housing, healthcare and education, along with clean-energy production, green infrastructure, and ecological agriculture.

Read..

Military Spending and its alternatives

See video... What can be done with 2 trillion?