Makes you think (American Military Budget)

[YOUTUBE]kFeduoDWKj4[/YOUTUBE]​

If fairly distributed, there is enough money flowing through our economy to give every American free healthcare, pay for every college students tuition, put million of people to work rebuilding our infrastructure (which is in critical disrepair), and we would still have enough money to maintain a world class military.

 

Welll...we have to be safe don't we...?

 

I've heard this comment often. However, the facts are that if you look at spending for several bases, jobs received for dollars spent, you can create significantly more jobs in other budget areas. A 2009 study at the University of MA. concluded that:

"Military spending creates about 11,600 with $1 billion in spending. By a significant amount, this is the fewest number of jobs of any of the alternative
uses of funds that we present. Thus, household consumption generates about 14,800 jobs, 28 percent more than military spending. Clean energy generates
about 17,100 jobs, (48 percent more than military) and health care generates about 19,600 jobs (69 percent more than the military). Spending on education is the largest source of job creation by a substantial amount, generating about 29,100 jobs overall through $1 billion in spending, which is 151
percent more than the number of jobs that are generated through $1 billion in military spending"

Given that we can achieve much more bang for the buck in job creation, I'd certainly side on spending in productive areas that help this nation compete more equally in a global economy.

 

Even if we cut the military budget in half, we would still have the largest military budget in the world.

 

wait...what?!?!

So you want to take MY money, and "fairly" distribute it?

 

I should have phrased that differently. I was actually talking about the tax based government operating budget, as described in the video.

Although, since the government takes taxes out anyway, it would be nice if the money was spread around fairly to the things that need it the most.

 

If fairly distributed, there is enough money flowing through our economy to give every American free healthcare, pay for every college students tuition, put million of people to work rebuilding our infrastructure (which is in critical disrepair), and we would still have enough money to maintain a world class military.

How about you do what most of have done, SAVE for college "OR" raise your hand and serve your country for it. Why is there this push for people to get something for nothing. How about healthcare go to the ones who simple can't get it (the very poor) and children...and everyone else get a job and pay for it.

...and if you want a a job. USMC, Navy, Army, and the Air Force is hiring. Americans want something for nothing. How about go work for it. When the time comes when some people simple can't I believe the governemtn should provide AID...........but pick a person up and put them on their back.

And MRAP (for example) costs US$500,000 each. So you mean to tell me the US Military shouldn't buy one of those.............so that we can GIVE some snoty nosed, lazy mother fucker a college education.

sorry.....me going hone to my children is worth more than holding some lazy, fat, temperamental college kid's hand. For 20 years I've worked my ass of, fought you "YOU" told me to fought, bad back, bad knees, can't sleep. I served this country so umm....my pay, my retirement, my health care, my degrees, I EARNED....fuck anyone who thinks they should get a free ride, just cuz....

 

Or how about this. I'm a tax payer and feel my tax dollars would be better spent providing free healthcare and free college than have a military budget that's over inflated. We live under the assumption that we believe in life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. What does that mean to you fam?

 

No one is advocating a free ride or a utopia for the lazy. But sky rocketing education costs and medical expenses have become a noose around a lot of hard working American families necks.

And when you think about the enormous amount of money we as a nation spend on defense (more than a trillion dollars per year), is it too much to ask to throw a little more money at making peoples lives easier?

But I also mentioned taking some of that money and re-investing in the soul of America which is our infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, dams, levees, power-plants and about a half dozen other things, are all badly in need of major work. With unemployment being so high putting people to work would be a win-win for everyone in the country.

 

Whoa!!!! Just dropped a bomb in this piece!!!!

 

Anybody who thinks a reduction in defense spending in part or in its entirety would lead to anything beneficial to the American people is dreaming. The first hands to move against any significant cut in defense spending would come from all of the defense contractors (Does Haliburton ring a bell?), most of whom have members of our government on their boards as owners/consultants and who hire retiring admirals and generals as lobbyist and leaders...

If such move got past that initial hurdle, none of the realized savings would go toward creating jobs in the U.S., improving education or improving anything else in the U.S. but giving businesses more capital to infuse in their overseas operations and their bottom lines to stockholders.

The voices now opposed to social programs would scream louder over their tax dollars funding even more programs. Free/affordable education? Healthcare? Cries of "Socialism" and "Welfare State" would fill the airwaves and front pages of every conservative based medium out there. "Obamacare" has already been demonized and its validity is to be decided by the US Supreme Court... Republicans are fighting to protect tax cuts for the rich at the cost of enraging their base. Guess who benefits most from the defense budget?

Representatives from the states to be most affected by said cuts would pull the punches to protect their constituents and the jobs in their states/districts...

Lastly, I question any study that attempts to quantify the benefits of dissolving defense spending to benefit the people. Somebody funded the study. If that somebody was already anti-defense, how fairly do you think they represented the facts on both sides?

The defense budget may get a superficial trimming, on that will undoubtedly affect personnel more than programs but nobody will see any benefits from it other than those already rolling in the dough.

 

Just because something is unlikely and goes against the way things have been established, doesn't make it not worth looking into. After all, if we as a people didn't buck an established, unfair system, We would still have legal segregation in this country.

 

Change never happens if people simply engage in negative speak and say what won't be, and what can never happen. It was the desire for something better that drove people to the polls in record numbers to challenge the status quo and elect our first president of African American heritage, something most black Americans saw as jokes about improbably consequences. While he's been fought at every turn to realize a bigger impact than has been made, there's still hope for a second term of greater change.

But, for the dissatisfaction of the 99%, and Occupy Wall Street, dialogue wouldn't be focusing on the inequity of the two classes in America, the rich and the rest of us. Already, politicians have taken notice and hopefully the movement will continue and have an affect on this issue.

Revolutions throughout time have occurred because people moved beyond pontification and chose instead to act. The one thing that I know for certain is that NOTHING will happen through inaction and supposition of what might be.

 

I agree that nothing is impossible, just that a defense budget cut or even elimination in its entirety would result in job creation or anything else beneficial for "the people" is highly improbable at best and as close to impossible as we can get.

By current estimations, American businesses are sitting on approximately $7 trillion in profits but are reluctant to hire or create new jobs because of uncertainties over where the economy is headed, costs associated with benefits, taxes, and government regulations and the lure of cheaper labor in other parts of the world.

With a gridlocked Congress having already taken stances to protect specific entities and an unwillingness to compromise on areas that are obviously broken or full of loopholes and do this without addressing the effects their inactivity has had on other entities, even social protests like Occupy have had little effect on changing anything but the location from which they are allowed to gather.

 

Businesses are sitting on tons of cash because it's the least risky thing to do. There's no longer a lure of cheaper labor, those costs are well understood. the same is true for taxes, benefits and regulation as it exists today. The single most important factor regarding job creation is demand. Demand is a function of spending habits, and spending habits change as people feel more confident about the economy. They feel more confident when home values aren't sinking and stabilized. People feel more confident when they aren't worried about war. When financial markets are calm, people feel more confident. It's all about spending, not saving.

The pent up demand resulting from people saving rather than spending is sufficient to drive the market place and the engine will start. You only have to look at the effect of time and stability to see how companies are starting to post big profit numbers again.

The auto industry announced double digit growth over last year. Continued growth will drive the need for more employees. That's the way it's always worked and it will continue that way because businesses are dynamic. They can't worry about things that can't control. They work with the best information if front of them and go forward, period. If they waited for the best possible economic scenario, they'd lose to the competition who understand those lessons. When changes occur, businesses adapt. These are the concepts that every CEO manages with their respective businesses.

 

In an ideal setting with no external factors muddying the waters I would agree with some of what you assert here... but the way I see it:

Businesses are sitting on tons of cash because it makes their stockholders happy as it becomes more difficult to compete and the economy is in a state of serious hurt. They are willing to take risks if they can use somebody else's money (401s, pensions, etc) to turn more profit. Tons of money and the highest unemployment numbers in recent years? I know it goes against modern business ethic to share the wealth and or in our current state of affairs, the pain...Down sizing, salary cuts, wage freezes amid record profits??? That's how businesses spell "relief".

No lure of cheap labor? Then I guess outsourcing, and plant closings in the US to open plants in China, Mexico, India, and anywhere else where labor laws and unions aren't a concern is just media hype... What about the push against illegal immigrants? Farmers will tell you how cheap labor is key to their profit margins and how legislation to toss their labor pool is hurting them...

The petroleum industry continues to insist on deregulation and dismantling of EPA rules to be able to survive and grow, but they've enjoyed banner years with government subsidies and near catastrophic disasters while shredding evidence of wrong doing and playing the blame game... Fines turn out to be slaps on the risk... And when anything else fails to generate greater profit, they simply raise the price at pumps and blame it on speculators or instability on Mars....

State and local governments (they are in essence businesses too because somebody profits from their budgets) have laid off teachers, firefighters, police and other state and city employees, moved to eliminate collective bargaining, closed/consolidated or contracted out schools, libraries and taken other drastic measures although demand for theses services have grown.

Demand may be an important factor in growth but having bled the US populace near dry, don't they all look to markets abroad to peddle their goods? In case you haven't factored in the fact that average salaries for the middle class and poor have flatlined or fallen consistently for the last 10 years. Its hard to create demand when there's only so much in the consumer wallet.

Me thinks the average American is more confident when there's job security and low/inflation, safe neighborhoods, and money in the bank... No threat of losing their homes... etc They see wars and conflict on television but it's not in the forefront of their decision making when they're buying a home or car unless they live in a war zone.

The housing market is in a serious tailspin and has been for the last five or six years. Calm market? The government bailed out investment companies on Wall Street, the American auto industry, and US banks so that they could foreclose on homes due to bad loans and junk bonds they freely traded in as a result of deregulation/relaxation of accountability rules.

Businesses are in the business of making money. They have to adapt in a dynamic environment but they are not feeling the pain felt on the ground. If it's a "pinch" for them, it's a full choke hold for middle class and poor America. Simply looking for another cash cow be it the defense budget or the treasury itself is only a band-aid on gushing wound.

 

Far from ideal, it's the business environment that's faced by companies every day.

Of course, it makes there stockholders happy...It's also the course of least resistance in this environment. I agree with this completely. They are sitting on money because people are still buying and profits are being made. What we aren't seeing now is new investment and expansion. When you aren't investing more money in a business and you're still experiencing sales, of course you will accumulate money. In other words, there is still demand as that drives everything.

It's been shown that even in this economy with the current workforce, that if people began spending more, more jobs would be created as demand would increase. There's no magic in that formulation. Spending has always brought us out of the doldrums. Once the housing fiasco occurred, the buying mentality was affected. People started to feel poorer because the equity in their homes was less. Once people give up buying products, the economy only contracts more.

We operate in a global environment and we participate to the extent possible in foreign markets. But, our goods are seldom the least costly products available globally. There's a difference in business profitability and the well being of the economy. Businesses, as I've mentioned are making significantly more money, again U.S. car sales are mainly U.S. based, not foreign sales. The increase in year of year profits in this and other industries is fairly plain proof that the poor economy, in terms of unacceptably high employment rates, hasn't affected business profits. That's undeniable....

The Dow is back in the black for the year, and that signals a lack of market turmoil. The biggest factor in continuation of the bull market has been the credit issue of the Europeans, as we're tied to their fate in this global marketplace. You should also take note of the fact that growth, while slow, has been revised up, because the economy is getting better. Jobs numbers were also revised upwards for September and October. Jobs are being added, but a lot more job growth is necessary.

The other issues are ancillary. Outsourcing is nothing new. Companies have already exploited those opportunities. So, the impact at this point is nil. We've outsourced most of what can be done. The manufacturing base disappeared years ago. Most of what you describe at events that have created problems, but again their impact has been made. It's inaccurate to say that housing is in a tailspin as well. It was in a tailspin. It may take a decade to fully recover but more homes are being sold each week. Housing sales are up, my friend. It goes back to demand, housing prices are down, people need homes, people buy homes, more money in the economy, more people working. It's working in every segment if you open your eyes to it. So, dwelling on the past doesn't matter. No one thinks about what they didn't have last year, only what they will have tomorrow or next year.

Crime, issues of safety, businesses seeking concessions, these are politically driven. They affect people, but there're ongoing issues that people just live with as they always have lived with them. Whether you care to understand or admit it, the facts paint a different picture, upward growth, revision in monthly job growth, year of year profits steadily increasing, more homes being sold and the financial markets back in the black. Politics will continue to divide people but companies aren't doing badly, and it based on demand that slowly being introduced back into the marketplace.

 

Believe me, I'm not hating on your business savvy and even accept a lot of what you've presented but I stand by the premise of the near impossibility of defense budget cuts doing anything to stimulate job growth because it is the same politics that has us bogged down elsewhere that will become territorial and dilute even the best intentions on how any realized savings derived from slashing defense would be applied.

 

if you want a smaller military budget, cheaper healthcare and college, shorter workweeks and twice as much vacation time, move to France

 

HA!!! Right?
My NCO was telling me how other European countries gets way more vacation time n' shit. I think the average work week is 30 hours in France.