What is your take on USA's military spending?

[Fight!]

The United States spends an estimated 43% of the world's military budget, and I'm curious as to how you feel about that.

Personally, I'm an American and believe spending should be lowered, but I want to know: what do you think about it?

Also, please include what country your from, thank you.

[Armatus]

It should be reduced. I'm not saying that it should be compromised, but reduced.

[Town Watch]

The crucial question is not the dollar amount spent on US military (except for those who indeed are the ones funding the US military- US taxpayers) , but whether the large military spending necessitates the interventionist agenda. Does the circle come to a close?

[Condottiere 40K]

Inefficient, apparently; unless it's global hegemony at any price.

[Vanoi]

Obviously needs to go up to stop the impending Chinese invasion.

[Denny Crane!]

Ironic.

If that same investment in its entirety was given over to development of green and sustainable technology and 90% of it was wasted, the USA would eclipse the world twice over again in economic dominance.


happens though.

[Jaketh]

Not high enough, more money needs to be spent on AI and related technologies until we can phase out human soldiers completely

[Condottiere 40K]

Nice try, Cyberdyne Systems.

[PointOfViewGun]

Does anyone have a chart on what the money goes to?

[Vanoi]

How much is the US's military spending? I have looked it up, but i keep getting different answers on what it actually is.

Nonetheless i believe the US's military spending needs to be cut in half. There is no use in spending that much money on the military any longer.

[Jaketh]

How much is the US's military spending? I have looked it up, but i keep getting different answers on what it actually is.

Nonetheless i believe the US's military spending needs to be cut in half. There is no use in spending that much money on the military any longer.

In the ballpark of 600+Billion dollars

[Thrillology]

How much is the US's military spending? I have looked it up, but i keep getting different answers on what it actually is.

Nonetheless i believe the US's military spending needs to be cut in half. There is no use in spending that much money on the military any longer.

Please, join the Army. After 20 years of serving, come back and tell me that statement again.

[Vanoi]

Please, join the Army. After 20 years of serving, come back and tell me that statement again.

Why? My father and his father before him were veterans. They also thought the US military was too big and cuts needed to be made.

[Exarch]

my take: indicative of the inherent flaws in the current economic/political model of the United States, where crony capitalism and military-industrial complex create a cycle whereby politicians are encouraged by armament lobby groups to support more defence spending to generate jobs in their own state (since arms companies saturate the entire CONUS with their factories). In return, the politicians receive funding and lobby money and cocaine and prostitutes.

so as you can see, the problem isn't "how much the US spends on defence" it's also a question of how the US economy is geared around defence spending and this is also reflected in the country's foreign policy: the US seems to get into some sort of military engagement every 20 yrs or so since Eisenhower's famous "military industrial complex' speech. Perhaps that's when all those bombs go stale or something.

[Caelius]

Most of you guys are making blanket statements on how much money the US spends on its military without even knowing what it spends it on. Who here can claim to have actually read the DoD Budget Plan for FY 2012 aside from myself?

Here you go. It's readily available for public consumption by the US Government. Chinese posters can eat their hearts out on that level of public transparency.

A lot of you guys are also patently ignoring the fact that as a portion of GDP it's not really that high. There are plenty of other things the US government spends a crap ton of money on that should be reduced before the military budget even becomes a topic of discussion. Especially given current US operations in the Middle East and Central Asia....you know....fighting a war.

I think most of the "it should be lowered" thinking just comes from more than a few people who are either uneasy or envious of the disproportionate military power the US has compared to the rest of the world which it spent a good part of the Cold War building up.....and then (remarkably) dismantled over the course of the 90s. Yet there are still people who complain that "It isn't enough! You should only be as powerful as we are!"

[PointOfViewGun]

Most of you guys are making blanket statements on how much money the US spends on its military without even knowing what it spends it on. Who here can claim to have actually read the DoD Budget Plan for FY 2012 aside from myself?

Here you go. It's readily available for public consumption by the US Government. Chinese posters can eat their hearts out on that level of public transparency.

A lot of you guys are also patently ignoring the fact that as a portion of GDP it's not really that high. There are plenty of other things the US government spends a crap ton of money on that should be reduced before the military budget even becomes a topic of discussion. Especially given current US operations in the Middle East and Central Asia....you know....fighting a war.

I think most of the "it should be lowered" thinking just comes from more than a few people who are either uneasy or envious of the disproportionate military power the US has compared to the rest of the world which it spent a good part of the Cold War building up.....and then (remarkably) dismantled over the course of the 90s. Yet there are still people who complain that "It isn't enough! You should only be as powerful as we are!"

Actually, it is.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

It's about the 10th highest % of GDP.
USA: 4.7%
Russia: 4.3%
China: 2.2%
EU: 1.6%

[Vanoi]

Most of you guys are making blanket statements on how much money the US spends on its military without even knowing what it spends it on. Who here can claim to have actually read the DoD Budget Plan for FY 2012 aside from myself?

I don't care what they are spending it on. It doesn't need to be so high any longer.

There are plenty of other things the US government spends a crap ton of money on that should be reduced before the military budget even becomes a topic of discussion.

Like what?

i think most of the "it should be lowered" thinking just comes from more than a few people who are either uneasy or envious of the disproportionate military power the US has compared to the rest of the world which it spent a good part of the Cold War building up.....and then (remarkably) dismantled over the course of the 90s. Yet there are still people who complain that "It isn't enough! You should only be as powerful as we are!"

Or if they are like me, they think much of the money spent on the military could be better spent elsewhere, or not spent at all. You know making cuts to help reduce that enormous debt the US has?

[Admiral Piett]

Like what?

Social Security.

[Vanoi]

Social Security.

Thats a whole other issue really. If SS wasn't broken i wouldn't mind spending money on it.

[Mangalore]

...

I think most of the "it should be lowered" thinking just comes from more than a few people who are either uneasy or envious of the disproportionate military power the US has compared to the rest of the world which it spent a good part of the Cold War building up.....and then (remarkably) dismantled over the course of the 90s. Yet there are still people who complain that "It isn't enough! You should only be as powerful as we are!"

I fail to see the point you are trying to make. Of course, other countries will say that! It is perfectly reasonable since it means they have to increase their budgets themselves (well, we Europeans would need to increase our budgets if the US reduces theirs but the rest of the world...).