If I could sell ignorant and stupid like gold ; This thread would make me rich.
kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 11:49 AM
Original message
How long can we continue to support a trillion dollar military? Updated at 11:07 PM
We are friggin' broke. And our military is stretched to all the corners of the earth. The Romans had nothing on us. At the present time, we are spending about $1 1/2 trillion dollars every two years on the military industrial complex. We are still buying weapons to fight the old Soviet Union. If the Republicans want to cut government spending, it seems this would be the first option. These trillions of dollars are not protecting our country. If we are all being asked to sacrifice, then why make exceptions, simply to satisfy political ideologies?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=5014846&mesg_id=5014846
cherokeeprogressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 11:50 AM
Response to Original message
1. That depends on how many employed by the military/industrial complex you wish to see out of work.EOM
They can just be "reassigned"
cherokeeprogressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Mon Feb-09-09 02:50 PM
Response to Reply #9
22. Oh no, I wasn't defending the MIC. It was a poor attempt to point out that
tens of millions of people work for companies that have contracts with the government to make military hardware, or components thereof.
I'm just as hot for rolling back the military budget by an order of magnitudes, but what do we do with all those people it will put out of work? Have them start painting bridges? Fix potholes or electrical lines? What will they do with their degrees?
Every knee-jerk idea has its unintended consequence.
They'll do as der Obamessiah damn well tells them to do that's what.
kentuck Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 11:54 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. What's the difference? Updated at 11:07 PM
Me out of work or someone in the military out of work?
But, the average peon in the military is not receiving these trillions of dollars. They go to big contractors like Halliburton and Bechtel and GE and others. It is corporate welfare at its worst. No one can argue with a straight face that we need all this money for our military.
You, are out of work because you are a useless eater. In real implementation of your progressive dream world, people like you would be on a government work gang digging
salt out of a Siberian mine ditches in a Nebraska Cornfield getting fed cardboard soup and being happy for it.
Warpy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 11:59 AM
Response to Reply #1
6. Military jobs are a net loss
because they don't employ anybody else. Weapons and gear are stockpiled to be used when necessary, not shipped around the country to be sold and used by other people. In fact, it's the industry that produces things that most of us hope will never be used.
Taking that money and rebuilding an industrial base largely based on non petroleum energy sources is a far better use for that money. Rebuilding our national infrastructure, crumbling from years of neglect, would be a better use.
We can no longer afford Empire. We the people are tapped out and the wealthy show no sign of wanting to support their own imperial endeavors.
It's time to take stock of who we are in the world and what we want.
A bloated military can't be part of any realistic future.
You DUmmies can't be tapped out, because you never had anything in the first place.
RaleighNCDUer (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 12:50 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. The money not going to the MIC would instead be going into the
public sector. Instead of building multi-billion dollar submarines for confrontations with non-existant enemies, we could be building deep-sea exploration vehicles. Instead of building fighter jets, we could be building wind turbines that would give us the power to get off of oil. Instead of sending tanks to Afganistan and creating enemies, we could be sending tractors and making friends.
The military produces NOTHING. We don't NEED to have 750 overseas bases - no country in the world has EVER had so many foreign bases during peacetime.
Those employed by the MIC could be as gainfully employed digging and refilling holes in the desert, for all the good they really do.
Winterblues Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 11:54 AM
Response to Original message
4. If Republicans REALLY wanted to protect America they would funnel
the very great majority of our spending to cancer, diabetes, aids, MS, Parkinson's, etc. research and protection. We lose 3000 people in eight years from "terror" and millions from tobacco and cancer and ?????. Republicans are just not truthful people.
Republicans are not truthful people ?
Have you looked at this thread FFS ? Wind power ? Sending Tractors to make friends ? Are you on crack or just stupid ?
The2ndWheel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 01:45 PM
Response to Original message
11. If there was an actual international military, then we'd have to pay less for it
Same with health care. If more people pay into a single system, each person has to pay less. If other countries were to contribute to a global military, in terms of money and man power, then the US taxpayer wouldn't have to take care of the entire bill. However, since we still have a few hundred regional governments on this planet, all acting in their own interests, we're stuck here in a reality where the US Government can choose it wants to bomb this or that, and no other government can stop it.
An International military? Isn't that what that disgraceful failure commonly known as the "UN" is intended to be ?
Gregorian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 02:00 PM
Response to Original message
15. It's not the money. I'd pay a trillion a year to feed the world.
And the real problem is that it's a big part of our economy. Food, clothing, vehicles, ammunition, fuel, ad infinitem. If we even cut it in half I have to wonder what would happen.
And I doubt the human race is going to change now. Hate and fear rule on planet earth.
But I try. I try to find optimism. Otherwise what would be the point in living on a world populated by republican mentality?
You'd be only too happy to piss a trillion dollars of money that IS NOT YOURS on any wall in sight.
Greyhound Donating Member (1000+ posts) Mon Feb-09-09 02:10 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. The supreme irony is that it would only cost about 1/10th of what we pay for
the dead-end, dead-loss, wealth destruction, that is the military to do just that, feed the world. It would also be enough to clothe, shelter, and educate them as well.
Additionally, if we did that we would not even need a military. After all who wants to attack the people are taking care of everybody else? How do you talk people that have their basic necessities met into blowing themselves up to kill their benefactors?
Oh man. You are a leading contender for "most ignorant post this week".
{edit to correct a Quote}
