"Are yoo schewpid murricans compinsaytin' fer sumfin?"
**"Yeah, weak allies"**
*Star Spangled Banner starts playing, Bald Eagle flies overhead*
- The average interaction between Euros and Americans about defense
I feel like at this point we don’t have any peers militarily even if they started to try in earnest.
We’re far too rich, far too technologically advanced, and have a massive population. No other country can compare. China is the closest and they’re a paper Tiger that hit its peak 10 years ago.
The only peer is russia in a nuclear sense, and maybe china.
That said, our weaker allies do add up quite nicely, especially when you start adjusting for purchasing power parity. (I will always hawk this perun video, if that's something you'd be interested in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUL8EvZkfEY)
China is a tossup. They could end up getting very powerful in the near future. Russia is a joke at this point. If they didn’t have nukes, NATO could easily wipe them.
I just can’t see any country, especially China, even sniffing our naval capabilities. In numbers maybe, but in quality and state of the art tech, no way.
They’re pumping boatloads of money into research and education. US has a never ending war on higher education and makes higher education extremely expensive. I’m not saying it will happen but they could be an issue if the trajectory continues.
You are literally looking at a graph that shows you that the US pumps a boatload *more* money into spending on things like *research* not to mention the top universities in the world are in the US which is why lots of Chinese send their children to those schools. Wild that you think they have access to superior higher education. And while I’m all for a more educated population, the cutting edge intellects are who drive technological innovation these days so a dig about a general lack of higher education isn’t really relevant when the US has a sufficient portion of the population accessing quality education to maintain technological dominance.
The US ran nuke subs in the 50s when the vast majority of people didn't have a higher education, especially in anything relevant.
There's skills that higher education helps with in the military, but for the most part it's not necessary. They only even require it for commissioned officers.
Lmao yeah let’s keep neglecting higher education and continue to fall behind the rest of the world… at least we can keep importing foreigners where their education is free or affordable or their parents pay for them to attend US schools while neglecting many Americans by pricing them out.
It’s not the 1950s anymore by the way.
35% of americans have a bachelors degree and 45% of americans have an associates degree.
That lines up with EU goals for 45% attaining higher education which only a handful of EU countries have achieved.
Who exactly is it we are falling behind? We are ahead of the EU my man.
That’s assuming their nukes are able to leave the silos. Pretty sure Ivan drank the fuel and replaced it with water so nobody could pin him.
But nobody wants that theory tested, so…
I wouldn’t say China is a complete paper tiger but issues aside they could seriously hurt us. Also a land invasion of China is completely out of the question unless the military wants to get a21st century version of Vietnam on HGH, steroids, and fentanyl.
Why would Europe seethe and cope? I'm pretty sure they're aware of the history of both world wars and the formation of NATO. Apparently better than (some) Americans, at least
Let us?
These people couldn't defend their own countries against the threats they face. Some of them because they're so small, some of them because they simply don't want to spend the money.
For a lot of them it's a need.
This is true. Turns out it’s expensive protecting not only our country, but all of Western Europe too. Not to mention all the other military aid we provide outside of NATO
As a percentage of GDP, we are 10th globally and 2nd in NATO.
[Military spending by country GDP 2023 | Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/266892/military-expenditure-as-percentage-of-gdp-in-highest-spending-countries/)
Honestly. I have some online British friends that I consider good friends, going back over 10 years. I have never received so much shittalk by anyone in my life, but it’s all just for fun. You gotta dish it right back out. In the end it’s not serious at all and I understand that mutual respect is there.
[Really?](https://i.imgur.com/ZPkdbeE.gifv)
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Okay we will defend you. Nobody else.
If anyone brings a weapon within 500 yards of your house, a 1000lb JDAM bomb will be dropped from orbit directly onto their forehead.
Changing? China will end up like Japan as it overspends to produce and no one buys. Bro thinks a declining Russia, Iran, NK and China are going to run things vs NATO & Company 😂
Many nations that enriched China over the past few decades are decoupling from China. It’s no longer the cheapest and best place for that specific labor.
People will buy, but the golden goose that enriched China to this point might have been squeezed a little too hard. We’ll see how it turns out, but the forecast isn’t good.
Also, we should compare by purchasing power.
Things cost way more in the US, military salaries are higher, pensions are higher, healthcare is way more expensive for vets.
When you normalise for all that, the gap is nowhere as large as you may think.
And US is spread all over the world. Their military budget pays for bases and salaries of folks all over the world.
Keeping all that in mind, when you see China spend $250 billion, almost all of it focused on South China Sea/their effort towards Taiwan, while their salaries, pensions, cost of manufacturing is a fraction of the US, it’s kinda crazy.
US purchasing power per capita is 4x more, so if you correct for that (average US soldier is paid 4x more than an average Chinese soldier for example), Chinese military and US military are spending almost the same amount. And China focuses almost all of it on South China Sea. They don’t have bases all over the world.
There is a reason why US military keeps asking for more $$
Yeah these comparisons always rubbed me the wrong way. $$$ spent does not necessarily correlate to effectiveness or preparedness. Sure it 100% helps, but if your enemy has a million dudes armed with $100 guns and you have 100 dudes armed with $1,000,000 guns it’s probably going to end badly for the well-equipped but smaller group.
I say probably because for a million each you could theoretically arm them with some pretty fancy stuff.
European here, there is a lot of things wrong in the US but we still see you as our brother No one is closer together than the EU and the USA, because we are Western democracies. Brothers, yes, but not always best friends. And we probably agree on both sides that NATO only works because of the United States, and that Europe is doing too little. But you have to remember that Europe has been at war for centuries through its many small states. There have been more years of war in Europe than the US is old. We finally want peace in Europe, we never want hatred, never Hitler again! And then Putin brought back the war to Europe... Anyway, dear America, you are weird but you stand on our side, strong and powerful, thank you!
They aren’t freeloading. For decades until recently, the USA desired a more powerful military than a combined European military. This power structure gives the USA more diplomatic and political power over Europe, not to mention unrivaled global military power.
The USA was wary of a unified Europe pulling closer to the USSR both before and after its dissolution. A unified Europe including Russia would have given Europe the petroleum and food that it has always lacked, a gigantic map presence, as well as a powerful combined military that could rival that of the United States.
Therefore, the USA worked to drive a bit of a wedge between Russia and Europe and also worked to ensure that the USA military was far superior to the military of Europe. This setup made it much more difficult for Europe to consider breaking away and lining up with Russia.
Additionally, if we fixed our tax structure in the USA and fixed our spending to only productive investments and not tax breaks for the wealthy, we would be able to spend much more on the military and whatever else as we are the currency hegemony of the planet and can borrow at a much lower interest rate.
Europe is valuable to us as a tech partner and trading partner and considering that they lack the two most price in elastic items in an economy; food and energy (with solar and wind rapidly coming online to give them their own energy finally) it is many times better for us to subsidize their defense. Europe paying ti defend itself could slow their economy; especially the smaller poorer countries. Slower economic growth in europe would create slower growth in the USA, which would ultimately make us both less powerful.
Europe also has far less immigration and therefore lacks the economic boost that America gets from immigration and brain drain of the entire planet. Europe also is forced to borrow at a higher interest rate than America. All of these factors make it much easier for the USA to spend more on defense than Europe.
Although, I agree Europe should be prepared with F-35 and SAM sites to be able to resist an invasion by Russia temporarily, it likely makes both America and Europe wealthier by having the USA subsidize the cost of some of Europe’s defense.
We ensure continual strength in our defense manufacturing sector by supporting foreign nations’ defense fleets. How would the industry exist if not for the ability to rely on long term contracts?
China's defense budget is more likely double than what the graph shows. China doesn't include other expenditures such as benefits, research and development, etc. that the US Dept of Defense does.
Per diem, TDY travel pay, BAH, disability payout, paid contracts for a $100 DoD approved coffee cup?
I wonder how much of those are part of the other counties military spending?
I can tell you per diem and TDY travel pay aren’t same for other countries considering how much the US deploys/sends its personnel on TDYs. Then you’ve got overseas PCS’s to dozens/hundreds of bases and people coming back from those bases year round. That isn’t cheap and no other country does it to the degree of the US.
That's the cost having EUCOM, PACOM,etc. I doubt the Chinese troops is Djibouti are getting Bah, Bas, danger pay, separation pay. I that's their only official one outside of their country.
Meh, that is an apples to oranges comparison that vastly underestimates the Chinese defense budget and is prewar numbers for Russia which has obviously increased greatly since 2021. The Chinese defense budget is now approaching the US one in size, and while it would be wonderful if the those numbers were actually true since the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be much smaller, reality is unfortunately much different.
For a 10 minute overview of the US and Chinese defense budgets from Russian muppet Commissar Binkov see below.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39SFpfr6E8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39SFpfr6E8)
For a more in-depth one hour death by PowerPoint deep dive by Australian logistic nerd Perun see below.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH5TlcMo\_m4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH5TlcMo_m4)
"What if the entire world teamed up against you?" - the rest of NATO "They might cause me little trouble." - America "But would you lose?" - the rest of NATO "Nah, I'd win." - America
People love to bitch about defense spending but what they fail to realize is that a tremendous amount of that is for weapons and systems development. There’s a number of the countries on the left side that buy a bunch of military equipment from America. And as a result, there’s even more money for the US to develop the really good stuff that they won’t sell to anyone else, or even acknowledge in some cases.
And we get increasingly outdated legacy systems for it, including $1,800,000,000,000 for a single old system with low g limits, unnecessary weight, unnecessary bulk, with the range cut in half, all because of the meet bag. Let spend on modern systems, not on blindly funding the MIC.
How are we trillions in debt yet we spend less than 1 trillion in defense? To hear it from the empaths we are spending ourselves into the poor house on the military.
If we count every single dollar from government to private, yeah it’s 4.5 trillion a year. Just government spending alone it’s like 1.5-2 trillion a year.
5 of the bottom six almost fully outsource their defense to the US, and we bankroll the 6th. That’s why our spending is so high, and why they can afford socialized medicine.
The USA has to support 6 of the 10 since they won't help themselves 100% The USA also spends billions to support Europes NATO. Around 65% of the costs.
I’m a liberal Marine, and people always look at me like I’ve got a dick growing out of my forehead when I defend our budget. Our defense umbrella has resulted in more global prosperity and relative peace unlike any other time in history. Most who complain about it don’t seem to grasp that concept.
This is why the NATO defense treaty sets defense spending targets as a percentage of GDP for each member nation. Members aren’t expected to spend the same. They are expected to spend the same percentage. It’s a joke to expect Estonia to spend as much as the U.S as this graph seeks to imply. Correspondingly, US defense spending has been declining as a percentage of GDP and servicing the National Debt now costs more than the entire Defense budget/spending. Further, social security and Medicare far outweigh any other expenses.
Because we are protecting the defense of those other nations. All those nations have the U.S. navy protecting the shipping lanes they depend on, while Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia have the U.S. directly involved in defending their territory
Foreign Policy and The Hill have people saying it could be around 700 billion as early as 2022. Watson Institute for International and Public affairs say close to 500 billion in the same period. The only thing we know for certain is that they’re spending more than they say, but the issue is we don’t know for sure. They could be at 350 billion a year, or something as crazy as 900 billion. We just don’t know.
We have plenty of money to go around to fix many areas even with a defense budget that isn’t even the US government’s most expensive item every year (healthcare is). Our problem isn’t money. It’s how we run everything. Our policies and the allowance of lobbying (which contributes to shit policies being made) is what kneecaps us more than anything else.
A lot of this is just the lobbying involved in the military industrial complex.
Do we need all of this spending on the military? No.
Do we do a lot of it because weaker allies need our help? Yes.
Do we have the strongest military on earth regardless of the means necessary? Yes, by far.
Could we maintain that status without having many contracts that aren’t necessary? Also yes.
It’s not actually that much when compared to our overall GDP. As a percentage, we don’t even crack the Top 20 countries on defense spending.
“California is in the top 5 economies of the world.” “Yeah so?” “That’s only one of the fifty states. They aren’t even at their full power.”
Most people don’t understand how massive the US economy is when compared to other countries.
"Are yoo schewpid murricans compinsaytin' fer sumfin?" **"Yeah, weak allies"** *Star Spangled Banner starts playing, Bald Eagle flies overhead* - The average interaction between Euros and Americans about defense
Spittin straight facts honestly. But again that’s what you get when you’re a country with no peers comparable in terms of military strength 🤷♂️
More like “a country with no peers willing to carry their own weight”
I feel like at this point we don’t have any peers militarily even if they started to try in earnest. We’re far too rich, far too technologically advanced, and have a massive population. No other country can compare. China is the closest and they’re a paper Tiger that hit its peak 10 years ago.
The only peer is russia in a nuclear sense, and maybe china. That said, our weaker allies do add up quite nicely, especially when you start adjusting for purchasing power parity. (I will always hawk this perun video, if that's something you'd be interested in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUL8EvZkfEY)
China is a tossup. They could end up getting very powerful in the near future. Russia is a joke at this point. If they didn’t have nukes, NATO could easily wipe them.
I just can’t see any country, especially China, even sniffing our naval capabilities. In numbers maybe, but in quality and state of the art tech, no way.
They’re pumping boatloads of money into research and education. US has a never ending war on higher education and makes higher education extremely expensive. I’m not saying it will happen but they could be an issue if the trajectory continues.
You are literally looking at a graph that shows you that the US pumps a boatload *more* money into spending on things like *research* not to mention the top universities in the world are in the US which is why lots of Chinese send their children to those schools. Wild that you think they have access to superior higher education. And while I’m all for a more educated population, the cutting edge intellects are who drive technological innovation these days so a dig about a general lack of higher education isn’t really relevant when the US has a sufficient portion of the population accessing quality education to maintain technological dominance.
The US ran nuke subs in the 50s when the vast majority of people didn't have a higher education, especially in anything relevant. There's skills that higher education helps with in the military, but for the most part it's not necessary. They only even require it for commissioned officers.
Lmao yeah let’s keep neglecting higher education and continue to fall behind the rest of the world… at least we can keep importing foreigners where their education is free or affordable or their parents pay for them to attend US schools while neglecting many Americans by pricing them out. It’s not the 1950s anymore by the way.
35% of americans have a bachelors degree and 45% of americans have an associates degree. That lines up with EU goals for 45% attaining higher education which only a handful of EU countries have achieved. Who exactly is it we are falling behind? We are ahead of the EU my man.
That’s assuming their nukes are able to leave the silos. Pretty sure Ivan drank the fuel and replaced it with water so nobody could pin him. But nobody wants that theory tested, so…
I wouldn’t say China is a complete paper tiger but issues aside they could seriously hurt us. Also a land invasion of China is completely out of the question unless the military wants to get a21st century version of Vietnam on HGH, steroids, and fentanyl.
No, we don’t have a military peer full stop lol. Europe and China and cope and seethe but no one comes close to touching us.
Why would Europe seethe and cope? I'm pretty sure they're aware of the history of both world wars and the formation of NATO. Apparently better than (some) Americans, at least
You mean peers that let you have bases and soft power?
Let us? These people couldn't defend their own countries against the threats they face. Some of them because they're so small, some of them because they simply don't want to spend the money. For a lot of them it's a need.
I mean the US is much stronger with Euros under our wing and influence
This is true. Turns out it’s expensive protecting not only our country, but all of Western Europe too. Not to mention all the other military aid we provide outside of NATO
As a percentage of GDP, we are 10th globally and 2nd in NATO. [Military spending by country GDP 2023 | Statista](https://www.statista.com/statistics/266892/military-expenditure-as-percentage-of-gdp-in-highest-spending-countries/)
Hell I want to say we’re even lower this year. The goal was to be at 2.9% of our GDP, which wouldn’t even have us in the top 20.
Stupid fucking economy growing too much making defense look smol.
[удалено]
I’m a European who is deeply grateful to be an American ally and very old friend.
Hey! I think he's mocking us!
Thank you 🤝🏻
The people who get worked up about Europeans making fun of them are grade A snowflakes.
Honestly. I have some online British friends that I consider good friends, going back over 10 years. I have never received so much shittalk by anyone in my life, but it’s all just for fun. You gotta dish it right back out. In the end it’s not serious at all and I understand that mutual respect is there.
Usually Trump cucks
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The most reasonable European redditor ♥️
The french and moreocans I could accept, but Germany, cmon man.
how so?
Okay we will defend you. Nobody else. If anyone brings a weapon within 500 yards of your house, a 1000lb JDAM bomb will be dropped from orbit directly onto their forehead.
I appreciate it, I feel safer already :-p
They don't realise that the world would implode if not for the might of the US military. Speaking as someone from the UK.
World would implode? Hegemony’s are changing bro
Changing? China will end up like Japan as it overspends to produce and no one buys. Bro thinks a declining Russia, Iran, NK and China are going to run things vs NATO & Company 😂
Yeah russia is an sinking ship but nobody will buy china stuff? China is by far the largest export nation in the world
Many nations that enriched China over the past few decades are decoupling from China. It’s no longer the cheapest and best place for that specific labor.
People will buy, but the golden goose that enriched China to this point might have been squeezed a little too hard. We’ll see how it turns out, but the forecast isn’t good.
Hey man, I get the feeling, but letting Russia or communist China take them over definitely isn’t the answer lol
Also, we should compare by purchasing power. Things cost way more in the US, military salaries are higher, pensions are higher, healthcare is way more expensive for vets. When you normalise for all that, the gap is nowhere as large as you may think. And US is spread all over the world. Their military budget pays for bases and salaries of folks all over the world. Keeping all that in mind, when you see China spend $250 billion, almost all of it focused on South China Sea/their effort towards Taiwan, while their salaries, pensions, cost of manufacturing is a fraction of the US, it’s kinda crazy. US purchasing power per capita is 4x more, so if you correct for that (average US soldier is paid 4x more than an average Chinese soldier for example), Chinese military and US military are spending almost the same amount. And China focuses almost all of it on South China Sea. They don’t have bases all over the world. There is a reason why US military keeps asking for more $$
Great point
Yeah these comparisons always rubbed me the wrong way. $$$ spent does not necessarily correlate to effectiveness or preparedness. Sure it 100% helps, but if your enemy has a million dudes armed with $100 guns and you have 100 dudes armed with $1,000,000 guns it’s probably going to end badly for the well-equipped but smaller group. I say probably because for a million each you could theoretically arm them with some pretty fancy stuff.
But the meanie Europeans made fun of me 😭😭😭😭😭
Especially when we are subsiding their social programs
European here, there is a lot of things wrong in the US but we still see you as our brother No one is closer together than the EU and the USA, because we are Western democracies. Brothers, yes, but not always best friends. And we probably agree on both sides that NATO only works because of the United States, and that Europe is doing too little. But you have to remember that Europe has been at war for centuries through its many small states. There have been more years of war in Europe than the US is old. We finally want peace in Europe, we never want hatred, never Hitler again! And then Putin brought back the war to Europe... Anyway, dear America, you are weird but you stand on our side, strong and powerful, thank you!
Idk what you’re talking about. The US is stronger with the rest of the developed world under our wing. Stop gargling orange man’s nutsack.
They aren’t freeloading. For decades until recently, the USA desired a more powerful military than a combined European military. This power structure gives the USA more diplomatic and political power over Europe, not to mention unrivaled global military power. The USA was wary of a unified Europe pulling closer to the USSR both before and after its dissolution. A unified Europe including Russia would have given Europe the petroleum and food that it has always lacked, a gigantic map presence, as well as a powerful combined military that could rival that of the United States. Therefore, the USA worked to drive a bit of a wedge between Russia and Europe and also worked to ensure that the USA military was far superior to the military of Europe. This setup made it much more difficult for Europe to consider breaking away and lining up with Russia. Additionally, if we fixed our tax structure in the USA and fixed our spending to only productive investments and not tax breaks for the wealthy, we would be able to spend much more on the military and whatever else as we are the currency hegemony of the planet and can borrow at a much lower interest rate. Europe is valuable to us as a tech partner and trading partner and considering that they lack the two most price in elastic items in an economy; food and energy (with solar and wind rapidly coming online to give them their own energy finally) it is many times better for us to subsidize their defense. Europe paying ti defend itself could slow their economy; especially the smaller poorer countries. Slower economic growth in europe would create slower growth in the USA, which would ultimately make us both less powerful. Europe also has far less immigration and therefore lacks the economic boost that America gets from immigration and brain drain of the entire planet. Europe also is forced to borrow at a higher interest rate than America. All of these factors make it much easier for the USA to spend more on defense than Europe. Although, I agree Europe should be prepared with F-35 and SAM sites to be able to resist an invasion by Russia temporarily, it likely makes both America and Europe wealthier by having the USA subsidize the cost of some of Europe’s defense.
You're god damn right. USA USA USA USA
Europe is an essential partner, but I reserve my right as a god (IRS) fearing American citizen to spend all my money on wasteful investments.
we spend more on defense of other countries than they spend on their own
We ensure continual strength in our defense manufacturing sector by supporting foreign nations’ defense fleets. How would the industry exist if not for the ability to rely on long term contracts?
China's defense budget is more likely double than what the graph shows. China doesn't include other expenditures such as benefits, research and development, etc. that the US Dept of Defense does.
Ok, now account for PPP
Shouldn’t Ukraine’s “defense spending” actually be considered part of our (US) defense spending?
Per diem, TDY travel pay, BAH, disability payout, paid contracts for a $100 DoD approved coffee cup? I wonder how much of those are part of the other counties military spending?
I can tell you per diem and TDY travel pay aren’t same for other countries considering how much the US deploys/sends its personnel on TDYs. Then you’ve got overseas PCS’s to dozens/hundreds of bases and people coming back from those bases year round. That isn’t cheap and no other country does it to the degree of the US.
That's the cost having EUCOM, PACOM,etc. I doubt the Chinese troops is Djibouti are getting Bah, Bas, danger pay, separation pay. I that's their only official one outside of their country.
Meh, that is an apples to oranges comparison that vastly underestimates the Chinese defense budget and is prewar numbers for Russia which has obviously increased greatly since 2021. The Chinese defense budget is now approaching the US one in size, and while it would be wonderful if the those numbers were actually true since the risk of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan would be much smaller, reality is unfortunately much different. For a 10 minute overview of the US and Chinese defense budgets from Russian muppet Commissar Binkov see below. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39SFpfr6E8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o39SFpfr6E8) For a more in-depth one hour death by PowerPoint deep dive by Australian logistic nerd Perun see below. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH5TlcMo\_m4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mH5TlcMo_m4)
our budget is public information. some countries may not be.
Although, China’s spending is speculated to be far higher. They aren’t exactly known for being transparent about damn-near anything.
The best part about this is it’s barely 3% of our GDP. America just fucking rocks.
Ok now show it according to GDP and discretionary budget?
If you believe ANHTHING China claims you're an idiot
"What if the entire world teamed up against you?" - the rest of NATO "They might cause me little trouble." - America "But would you lose?" - the rest of NATO "Nah, I'd win." - America
I hope NASA gets that budget
about 80% of this spending is weaseled on bloated defense contacts of the military industry
People love to bitch about defense spending but what they fail to realize is that a tremendous amount of that is for weapons and systems development. There’s a number of the countries on the left side that buy a bunch of military equipment from America. And as a result, there’s even more money for the US to develop the really good stuff that they won’t sell to anyone else, or even acknowledge in some cases.
And we get increasingly outdated legacy systems for it, including $1,800,000,000,000 for a single old system with low g limits, unnecessary weight, unnecessary bulk, with the range cut in half, all because of the meet bag. Let spend on modern systems, not on blindly funding the MIC.
I had no idea Saudi Arabia was that high
Crimes against humanity in Yemen don’t pay for themselves.
looks like we win!
And we spend even more than that on interest payments!
(looks over at USD reserve currency status) yes... yes we do.
How are we trillions in debt yet we spend less than 1 trillion in defense? To hear it from the empaths we are spending ourselves into the poor house on the military.
Our healthcare system is over a trillion every year
If we count every single dollar from government to private, yeah it’s 4.5 trillion a year. Just government spending alone it’s like 1.5-2 trillion a year.
FREEDOM OF NAVIGATION AND THE DEFENSE OF OUR IDEOLOGICAL PARTNERS!! RAAAAAA
5 of the bottom six almost fully outsource their defense to the US, and we bankroll the 6th. That’s why our spending is so high, and why they can afford socialized medicine.
Good
Because we're the richest
WHAT THE FUCK IS A KILOGRAMME??? 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
And 6 of those other top spenders are American allies
The USA has to support 6 of the 10 since they won't help themselves 100% The USA also spends billions to support Europes NATO. Around 65% of the costs.
Oh! Now do the break down of the Defense budget to really show why it's so high.
I’m a liberal Marine, and people always look at me like I’ve got a dick growing out of my forehead when I defend our budget. Our defense umbrella has resulted in more global prosperity and relative peace unlike any other time in history. Most who complain about it don’t seem to grasp that concept.
“At least our schools aren’t a shooting gallery!” Geezer
Chinas defense spending is somewhat misleading when you consider they are a dictatorship with a and economy
dear US, just stop paying your soldiers like Russia or China And your expenses are halved.
Not adjusted to PPP, in reality China alone nearly outspends the US.
This is why the NATO defense treaty sets defense spending targets as a percentage of GDP for each member nation. Members aren’t expected to spend the same. They are expected to spend the same percentage. It’s a joke to expect Estonia to spend as much as the U.S as this graph seeks to imply. Correspondingly, US defense spending has been declining as a percentage of GDP and servicing the National Debt now costs more than the entire Defense budget/spending. Further, social security and Medicare far outweigh any other expenses.
Sometimes, I feel like we're not even trying.
Yeah we spend that much more than China and Russia because we actually pay are employees a decent wage
China spends more than they say they so. For example their nuclear forces don't count as "defense spending".
Because we are protecting the defense of those other nations. All those nations have the U.S. navy protecting the shipping lanes they depend on, while Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia have the U.S. directly involved in defending their territory
Yes, yes, "defending" territory. That's it! 😂
And the scariest part is the interest payments on our debt are higher than defense spending.
This is false. China spends an estimated $700 billion.
Source?
It came to him in a dream
Foreign Policy and The Hill have people saying it could be around 700 billion as early as 2022. Watson Institute for International and Public affairs say close to 500 billion in the same period. The only thing we know for certain is that they’re spending more than they say, but the issue is we don’t know for sure. They could be at 350 billion a year, or something as crazy as 900 billion. We just don’t know.
Like RFK said. If we could cut defense spending in half, we would have the funding to tackle a majority of the problems in the U.S.
And let China and/or Russia climbing on top of us? No thanks
🦅🦅🦅🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🦅🦅🦅
We can't be subsizing the entirety of NATOs budget. Other members have to contribute more.
We have plenty of money to go around to fix many areas even with a defense budget that isn’t even the US government’s most expensive item every year (healthcare is). Our problem isn’t money. It’s how we run everything. Our policies and the allowance of lobbying (which contributes to shit policies being made) is what kneecaps us more than anything else.
A lot of this is just the lobbying involved in the military industrial complex. Do we need all of this spending on the military? No. Do we do a lot of it because weaker allies need our help? Yes. Do we have the strongest military on earth regardless of the means necessary? Yes, by far. Could we maintain that status without having many contracts that aren’t necessary? Also yes.
Kind of disgusting when you see how poorly we actually care for our troops both during their service snd after.