U.S. Deficit//Spending (Not what u think)

[Natalya]

While the thread title might make you think that I'm a Tea Bagger, or that I'm about to start some Dem vs Repub debate, that's not what I'm actually trying to do. I'm actually here to post this interesting pie graph:





Now, the first question that one should ask immediately after analyzing this graph:


How the hell did France get 3rd place? I mean, who saw that coming? They were higher than even the god damn U.K. Sure they still do nuclear weapons testing for some reason, but third place on military spending? Wow.


But okay lulz aside, we're beating the top 14 countries added together. We spent over $700 Billion this year. Does anyone understand how incomprehensibly large a number $700 Billion is? Let's say you took Bill Gates and multiplied his wealth 10 times... You would be short if you had ten of him try to write a $700 Billion check.

But okay, so, we obviously kick everyone's ass and we destroyed two countries and no one can touch us right? Isn't that a good thing. Well, yea I think it's good; no one would ever want to mess with us because that kind of expense means that no one could ever even think about touching us.

Nonetheless, notice how we take the rest of the UNSC's permanent members and blow them out of the water even if they were added up... Let's say we didn't spend $700 Billion in '09. Let's say we only spent $600 Billion. Now, we still kick ass and take names of course. All those countries together still don't amount to jack shit against 600 B's right? We'd still be like 40% or something of world military expense. But what the fuck guys, do we ever ask ourselves what we could do with that $100 Billion we didn't spend on blowing shit up?

I mean, we could send every high school grad to a 4 year college, we could end world hunger, we could provide free medical care to everyone for everything and eliminate insurance companies, we could put a golf course on the moon, we could buy the internet, we could use this against our defecit, we could fix every single god damn interstate highway in the country, we could give everyone a check for about $300 for no reason at all, we could build a massive fusion reactor and supply our energy needs for the future...

I guess what I'm saying is that while it's cool we can blow everyone up, it is very expensive and we don't always look at all the other arguably more constructive ways the money we use on the military could be spent. I'm starting to think that our massive military budget could in fact be our biggest national security issue because it makes us indebted to the likes of China and takes away from all the cool stuff we could have at home like monorails or whatever. It also encourages war on the part of administrations of both parties; not even socialist leftist Lenin marxist Obama can stop the war in Afghanistan. When we think of the military we're like "support our troops" but evidently they already have absolutely everything they could ever ask for... But I'm not saying they suck; I just think it's becoming dangerous how much we spend on the destruction industry and it is weakening our economy.

[Zahru II]

Why don't you pay your countrys' debts with that many cash?

[solvess]

Cause George bush fucking spent it all on war!

[Zahru II]

That's nice. We're all of a sudden neck deep in shit because word of god (our newly elected government) decided so, kicking me, eBay using nerd into the balls because exchange rates got crancked up to the stratosphere.

I hate this country.

[Natalya]

Well that went to shit faster than I expected.

[Tzan]

2009 was a big year for war expenses in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I think that when we declare victory in Afghanistan you'll see those numbers come down.

But yes, of course it should be cut in half.

Tzan's US military doctrine:

6. Overseas bases are expensive, we actually pay those countries to rent space. Shut them down or make the host country pay 200% of all the expenses, including salaries, food, everything. Now we don't have a drain we have a profit center!

7. Most other countries of the world suck!
If they don't appreciate our efforts on their behalf, I say let them burn.
If a country wants help, they have to pay for it. No more free handouts.
We also explicitly tell Russian, China... etc that they can do anything they want, we wont stop them. Then the world will come crying, please please save us. Of course we wont help because when Russia and China are tied up into decades long insurgencies (that we will support) we can laugh at them as they waste their money for no real gain. Like Russia in Afghanistan.

8. Cut the hands off of any politician that votes money for a project that even the pentagon doesn't want. If they don't want it don't buy it moron, chop chop. This happens every year.

9. I could go on but seriously there is no point in complaining, we can't change anything.



Tzan for president 2012!

[Zahru II]

Most other countries of the world suck!

French won more wars than the total number of armed conflicts the USA had ever had since it's establishment.

Also, vive la Resistance!

[RoC77]

Most other countries of the world suck!

French won more wars than the total number of armed conflicts the USA had ever had since it's establishment.

Also, vive la Resistance!

And how old is the US & how old is France?

[Tzan]

I'll bet the Romans won more battles.
But what have they done for us lately?

[Zahru II]

I'll bet the Romans won more battles.
But what have they done for us lately?

Just roads, the senate and spheres.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vbSRaXH3NM

/thread

[Arkbrik]

On the subject of jews, they also have a pretty badass military. On the day that Israel was founded they took on the entire Middle East and won. And if you believe the Bible they also genocided just about everyone on the Mediterranean east coast back in the days.

[stubby]

Well that went to shit faster than I expected.

I didn't expect it to take as long as it did. How did you not see that coming?

[Hoboman]

Well that went to shit faster than I expected.

I didn't expect it to take as long as it did. How did you not see that coming?

Why post something like that and then not expect it to go to shit quickly? If it had not been you, I would have thought it was a Troll post.

[morganm]

That original pie chart isn't really a good chart to make your argument... which, if I understand you, is that we are spending too much on military. That graph shows no context of military spending as compared to the US GDP. What it does show is how we stack up compared to everyone else; which is an interesting fact in and of itself but does not support your argument.

I think a better way of looking at your stance is seeing how much we are spending on military and how much we are spending on other things. Puts those expenses in context by comparing them to one another and to the GDP. Then you can really see where the money is going.

Military spending as a percent of GDP is about 6%. Government spending on Education spending is about 7% of GDP. Gov. spending on Healthcare is about 7% of GDP. Total Gov. spending is 40% of GDP or another way of looking at that is that our national debt is about 60%. When you hear those numbers about how GDP went up a measly 1.6%... almost half of that was government spending! Now you may think... what's wrong with that? That's not REAL economic growth.... growing the government doesn't REALLY increase our GDP; it consumes resources from the real economy. It really shouldn't be included in our GDP if you ask me but hey; nobody did...

Here's some actual dollar figures.
We spent $800 billion on 'stimulus' while, at that time, we had spent $524.6 billion in Iraq and $120.9 billion in Afghanistan.

Gross US Government Bailout Outlays $4.1 trillion
Includes gross TARP outlays, US Treasury outlays, and Federal Reserve outlays (not including repayments)

Net US Government Bailout Outlays
(after repayments) $3.6 trillion
Includes net TARP outlays, US Treasury outlays, and Federal Reserve outlays (less amount of repayments to US government)

US Government Bailout Guarantees $16.3 trillion
Includes guarantees from US Treasury, Federal Reserve and other US government agencies


My point here isn't that the DoD should get a blank check or that their spending is insignificant. I actually sympathize with your agrument to a certain degree; we could easily cut some waste out of the military budget. My point is that we have a very serious spending problem in this country. We have a spending problem from top to bottom, coast to coast, white house to city precinct!

Sources: (be sure to look at the sources of the sites I link as well... I was sure to look at their sources before using them but do your own research to verify)
http://www.usfederalbailout.com/
http://blogs.reuters.com/frontrow/2009/ ... ar-so-far/
http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/spending_history
http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/88xx/doc8877 ... tml#box4-1
http://www.visualeconomics.com/gdp-vs-n ... y-country/

[lrdofbricks]

EDIT: I UNDERSTAND NOW THAT YOU DIDNT WANT OPINIONS, BUT I don't FEEL LIKE DELETING IT, FEEL FREE TO SKIP IT.
this kind of shit pisses me off. the united states of america has the largest, best equiped, best trained military in the world. a lot of that money goes into research to created more advanced weaponary. during desert storm, our airforce took out of 50% of iraqi troops before american soldiers set foot in the country. we pay becuase we kick ass. you know why suddan hussian is living in the mountian trying to destroy us with car bombs? becuase if he every tried a military coup agianst the united states military, HE WOULD GET HIS ASS KICKED. we pay the most to get the most. we can also afford it becuase our GDP is almost equal to the ENTIRE EUROPEAN UNION. i believe america needs to stand ahead of the world by maintianing the most sophisticated fighting force known to man