[isostatic]

Iceland has no military spending Ireland spends 0.4% of it's GDP on military Switzerland 0.7% Sweden 1% Finland (who have actually been invaded in living memory) 1.4%

The U.S. spent $574b on defence and $79b on veterans last year, both increased way above inflation - total of $57b. Education by comparision dropped by 14%, or $9b. Health by 18% or $15b.

The largest slice of the U.S. budget is healthcare (mainly medicare/medicaid). This cost $5,500 per citizen, despite only covering 1/3rd of the population. This is because the U.S. health care system is fundamentally broken, and costs about 3 times as much per person in europe.

[seibelj]

Without the US military all of these countries would be required to fund a large military to avoid being conquered. Pax Americana has allowed Europe to shirk their responsibilities, but some people would argue its worth it to the US.

[cryoshon]

i keep seeing this canard whenever military spending arises.

tell me: who would invade?

germany has no ambition to conquer france. poland has a buffer to protect it from the russians. estonia is in NATO.

seriously, what threat is going to suddenly gobble up europe?

oh yeah, and where are the millions of US troops currently stationed in europe that would supposedly stop the threat?

[keiferski]

Russia would absolutely invade / interfere with ex-Soviet states if they didn’t have the protection of NATO. See: Ukraine.

[seibelj]

I believe you are quite foolish if you think an opportunistic power wouldn't invade if they had the opportunity.

[jki275]

It doesn't take millions to make that kind of aggression politically unpalatable.

[dagw]

Iceland has no military spending

Not entirely true. It has no standing army, but it does have a militarized coast guard, air defense systems and an air force base it maintains, as well as a small Crisis Response Unit that can be deployed internationally. In addition it is a full NATO member for which it has certain costs.

[astura]

That's an incredibly naïve view of military spending since those countries are subsided by the American military.

[jki275]

You get to have that system because the US has taken on the role of global police and funds our military at a level commensurate to that role.

If you funded your military appropriately, we wouldn't have to fund your defense.

Your comment about healthcare is so simplistic it's not even worth a reply, but I'll simply note that the vast majority are not on medicare or medicaid and are covered by private insurance. Your assertion that the system is broken is simplistic and uninformed (ETA, I'm not saying the system isn't broken, there are many issues with healthcare in the US, but "just be like Europe" isn't going to work for so many reasons it's not really feasible to list them here).

[isostatic]

The US spends $10200 a year per head on healthcare, most of it ($8k a year) government or compulsory spending.

Canada spends $4800 a year on healthcare in total -- under half that of the U.S. Israel spends $2800.

That's a sign of a broken system.

Use Canada's system, cut your mediacare/aid tax, and your companies no longer need to spend money on healthcare when employing them. Using Canada's system removes the tax on jobs that the U.S. loves so much.

> You get to have that system because the US has taken on the role of global police

Why? Who benefitted from invading Iraq? Who benefits from a dozen different aircraft carrier groups around the world?

[jki275]

You act as though "invading Iraq" is the only thing the US military has ever done. That's a little myopic, don't you think?

Again, your numbers don't really have any meaning on the healthcare thing. It's a far more complex discussion than you are attempting to make it.

[isostatic]

No country in the world comes close to health spending as the US. I'm sure that's american exceptionalism though.

The U.S. military doesn't seem to protect anyone against modern threats - terrorism, propaganda, rigging elections, etc.

[jki275]

Fortunately for you, you will never understand the threats you never saw.

[mkohlmyr]

IIRC The stated goal of our (Sweden) armed forces is something like the ability to defend 1-2 regions for a single week if we are faced with an invasion.

Our defence budget is 1% of GDP because we are betting on the US (and a few others) continuing to spend as it does, and that it will be in their national interest to help us if the time comes.

If the US slashed its defence budget to a 'reasonable' level, we would have to increase ours in turn to the best of our abilities. If the US brought theirs down all the way to 1%, the only people laughing would be the PLA and Putin himself.