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by AlexandrB 439 days ago
This is "broken window fallacy"[1] territory. In economic terms defense spending is mostly waste because a lot of it doesn't get used (hopefully) or gets used to blow other stuff up causing net damage. The fact that it creates jobs is better than nothing, but spending the same money on infrastructure would increase the future productivity of the country.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
1 comments
Workaccount2 438 days ago
The defense budget is a social support program that conservatives will agree to. Rather than just providing people a basic income and healthcare directly, they add the hoop of holding down a job to access it.

It also is meant to keep American industry active (to some degree) in case it is needed.

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SJC_Hacker 438 days ago
No one else can project conventional military force anywhere on the global like the US. China is getting there but not quite yet. India and Russia are still regional.

The Europeans couldn't deal with a few land pirates practically in their backyard.

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roenxi 436 days ago
If the US has convinced itself that able-bodied young men who are good at following orders are the people who need social support then it is quite a bit worse than mere waste. That is $800 billion spent keeping the US's best labour out of the labour force.

The US isn't sending sad cases over to Japan to cash welfare checks.

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