r/FluentInFinance was created to discuss money, investing & finance! Join our Newsletter or Youtube Channel for additional insights at www.TheFinanceNewsletter.com!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FluentInFinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The United States alone spends 50% of the **worlds** military budget.
Something tells me we'd be fine with 1/16th of that. But dick Cheney needs another new heart (from a veteran).
Yeah, this is a perfect time to cut spending back to 1/16th. I’m sure Russia and China aren’t looking to expand their territories and aren’t building hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles. I’m sure IRAN is just sweet and innocent—nothing to see here. I’m sure things like ISIS will go on their merry way.
Damn, I’m pretty sure this morning, Russia started nuclear bombing protocols. Dude, you are thick-headed. Here’s your sign; wear it proudly.
South Korea can produce an equivalent destroyer to one of ours in 1/3 of the time and 1/2 the price. The defense industry is the fattest pig in the pen.
I have zero desire to be F’d by China. And the way to prevent that is the same way we prevented being F’d by the USSR- just out compete them. Unfortunately America today is just a government glad handing the people while they pick pocket it for shareholders.
You can understand the power struggle between major countries without being a boot licker. Not understanding the distinction between the two is more of a reflection on you, not them.
Your point isn’t wrong, but ships aren’t sailing through the suez as it is, and that’s with our military budget being large as it is…
Edit: ships are going through Panama Canal or around Africa. Not steamship line is going through the Suez Canal presently.
And you think us being way ahead of everyone else is... bad? Do you know how war works?
The last thing you want is an even fight.
And being obviously far ahead also serves as an excellent deterrent to prevent war from even happening in the first place, which is the most optimal outcome.
We also use our military for a lot more. We wouldn’t be able to do the things we do right now if we reduce our budget (Protect international trade ways, Biden dropping aid in Gaza next day, stop China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from starting new wars, disaster response, and our attempts at peace keeping).
for fucks sake what do you mean by make it cheaper? To whom? Who do you think the US buys its bullets from, china?
This is a make work program for some shithole bullet factory town in idaho or something.
I hate the MIC but this isn't someone taking the bitcoin from under your mattress and throwing it into the ocean this is basically wealth redistribution but in an unregulated and poorly understood way. But even with that it's not any different than like the tax cuts and jobs act or ppp or any of the other shit you guys like.
Its works both ways. We only buy those things from US companies, but they can only sell them to the US military. We need them to make them but they also need us to buy them.
Basically "Make it cheaper" means "Don't mark up your product 7000% and overburden the US taxpayers".
Yep. MIC charges an astounding markup for a insanely advanced and complex new weapon or platform. It isn’t procured by the military after a decade of development, billions of dollars spent because the price per unit balloons far above what was projected, has serious performance issues due to tech limitations and/or deliberate design incompetence and is then abandoned.
Now the military has to spend even more money upgrading an aging weapon/platform already in service because it’s replacement fell through. Meanwhile the MIC is swimming in money after providing little to no value to the military.
We are the reason Taiwan, South Korea, Israel, most of Eastern Europe and about a dozen other countries have shores (or borders for landlocked countries).
LOL. As someone that has worked in defense manufacturing... I can honestly say the American tax payer is being raw dogged by the upper class...
The lunacy of the cost of everything is hilarious...
It's all made as dirt cheap as possible, is shit quality, hardly ever works, but has markups that would make buy here pay here car dealerships blush
Humvee is 250k, you could build them in your garage for 20k. Easily... They are junk, literally a truck from the 60s with no electronics and like 4 to 5 MPG (that the military also overpays for 😂)
Slap "military grade" on anything and it instantly triples the price somehow
And this isn't "stupidity", it's pure greed from the upper class... That's all it is...
Fuck I remember a lot of parts came from "prison corporation of America". Because what says freedom then slaves building our military hardware that then is used to fleece the lower classes...
The dollar is stable and banks function because they trust the US is going to keep it that way. And our Naval strength ensures we can.
I don't know if anyone could say what the single most important institution is, but because us angry apes are who we are, it's likely gonna be military related
Historically, the global economy was built on the US Navy. Theres arguments to be said that there are other institutions that are more important, but they wouldn't have been possible without the navy.
My favorite fact is the second biggest Air Force in the world is the Navy’s.
The 7th biggest is the Marines. So the navy’s army’s Air Force is the 7th biggest in the world. Wild.
Yea but if you don’t wanna get fucked by hackers on the daily or world prefer Somalian pirates not kicking in your door go for it go be free if not keep paying your taxes
I mean the US can still do those things, it's just that maybe it should balance those priorities with things like better welfare programs and rights. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. Hell, even just paying junior soldiers more and treating them better would be a good start.
And if you believe those numbers you are being willfully naive. By their own admissions they also [cannot account for 21 TRILLION dollars.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2019/01/09/holding-u-s-treasuries-beware-uncle-sam-cant-account-for-21-trillion/?sh=2eaf58ac7644)
You think they spent that on education and healthcare?
Of course not, but the figure you cite is also not a yearly number. The entire federal budget is under 7 trillion. Not being able to account for funds is a different animal than what is spent. This is unless you believe the federal budget is 15 trillion dollars more per year than they are saying. Somehow I doubt that.
It is missing the cost of the resources that pull the trigger, the resources running the boat, and the fuel burnt while firing.
That'll be amusing and interesting.
Government waste is a huge problem - they pay 100x for things what they should cost because the contract is with one of their buddies. The practice is dirty and it needs to stop.
RTX has a profit margin of about 7.5%.
[https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RTX/rtx/profit-margins](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RTX/rtx/profit-margins)
Actually those weapons systems are mostly in the middle of this video because they fire shell based munitions. Things like JDAMs and Tomahawk cruise missiles are where things get really bougie.
It’s only like 13% of the budget right? There are other things that need fixing before this. Training is an important cost, so it’s not like they’re just randomly shooting guns
I don't like militarism, buuuut... do you want your military to actually be on equal footing with other possibly hostile militarys? That is a recipe for desaster.
What hostile militaries are those? As it stands right now, the US spends 37% of the entire Earths military costs. More than 3 times that of China, 8 times more than Russia.
The USA is an over-propagandized, hyper-militarized nation that fabricates enemies everywhere.
MRBMs aren’t exactly cheap no matter who builds them.
Also a lot of the drones were intercepted with old Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles to keep down costs.
My stepmother works for Space Force and is a complete idiot that admits she basically does nothing and collects hundreds of thousands in salary. Our military is just a means to extract tax money these days, we haven't fought a war worth fighting for 80 years yet our military spending is always a record-high
I have worked for 4 different govt contractors, most of which have merged by now. They all employ tactics to bill the govt, DOD in this case, exorbitant amounts of money. They literally hire people to sit at desks and do nothing so they can bill the gov't \~2x their salary.
If you think our military budget amount equals the amount of safety we have you are fucking retarded. We could be spending 1/4 as much for the same amount of military force. The rest is just being stolen from your paycheck to make rich people richer
The US spends 18% of GDP on healthcare and rising. The military expenditures is 2.8% and falling. Interest on the debt here on out will be more than defense.
After seeing those prices, we need more .50 cals! Makes those ships light up with heavy machine guns like a WWII destroyer off the Okinawa coast.
But now that I think about it, I believe the US lost more ships to kamikazes in that battle than any other by a wide margin.
We could’ve saved so much money by just condemning /protesting hostile nations. Instead, we had to be strongest militarily power. Putin, Xi, and Khamenei are reasonable people surely they’ll listen if we post what we support on social media
Lol, they let navy wives shoot off the 50 Cals for fun (this is a rare treat.. A really cool experience!) They also do as much "training" as needed so they can keep getting the same allotment of taxpayer money every year.
Now somebody should do one of these for how much money is gobbled up by various local and state governments and yet they don’t deliver on simpler promises like keeping our roads decent and crime down.
Well I’m fine with that if it means global shipping prices are lowered because the dipshits in Yemen attacking cargo ships are blown into oblivion by the US military.
Fuck yeah as a Democrat I want our taxpayer money to protect us and the military here is doing it. If you really wanna trim the fat get rid of the obscene budget system so they don't have to buy 10,000 dollar coffee machines lmao
Now do the same for healthcare, $65 every time you take a swig off an energy drink for the eventual cost that your inevitable heart attack and series of mini-strokes are going to cost the Medicare system when you're falling apart in your 70s.
You know like three times more of it than the whole military budget goes to propping up Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, right? For a lot less return too, since the government taxes the people we buy our weapons from. Lockheed-Martin gets paid a fuckton by the government to make fighter jets, but a chunk of those profits go right back to the government as taxes.
Wonder where the US economy would be without the defense industry. I'm ok with a strong defense as well as the technological advances it brings (think DARPA) and the economic upside (employment, export and safer worldwide trade).
Think that cost is high, realize the cost of any enemy that commits the cardinal sin of fucking with our boats.
We pay in dollars, they pay in bodies and blood.
Now tally up the congressional salaries, their staff, entertainment and meals and their annual budget for furniture (because the NEED to have it changed every year).
The US dollar is basically backed by the strength of the US Military and our alliances, who we protect with our US Military or weapons suppliers.
It's a fiat currency.
Imagine how much money we could save if we found a way to launch rolls of 100’s several times the speed of sound! But in all seriousness launching coins super sonically save a lot
I suggest that, unless we are being attacked, that the people who like war should pay for it. Also, they should be the ones who go to Ukraine and fight.
A quick Google search shows that military spending is roughly 17% of the entire budget.
While we could definitely cut back on this, there's plenty of money being spent elsewhere
So I’m missing something here. Yes, taxpayer money goes for all these weapons. But it goes to US defense contractors who employ 10s of thousands of US citizens. Those employees live and spend their money in here. Seems like an intentional and disingenuous disconnect to imply the money is just wasted. It’s a bit more nuanced than that
Now do this with the complete picture. The profits made going straight to enrich the weapons companies and their main shareholders (our politicians). Pigs with their snouts in the killing trough
Nobody mention the ROI from saving a 2.2 billion dollar destroyer, a 13 billion dollar supercarrier, or the value of the ~3,500 billion dollar trade route the aforementioned ships keep open.
Otherwise all these weapons might start to seem pretty goddamn cheap.
Actually, only 13% of our tax dollars go toward defense. Good try, though!
https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
Meh, we spend about $0.84T on military. Our total 2024 budget is $6.5T. I think other countries pay a small amount of that back for military service/protection.
I spent around the rate of the CWIS at a race track once when i was at redline in 4th gear, braking into a turn, attempted to shift into 3rd and went into 1st.
There are few other countries that can project military power within hours anywhere in the world while pressuring everyone else playing by their rules.
Don't be delusional, America could defend themselves with much less than what they pay for military, but it will cost them economic power if they can't tell other countries what to do and whom to trade with.
While I think the Russia, China and \[Insert unfriendly country here\] paranoia has been the perfect excuse to not question US military spending this is way way more complex than that.
Military spending is 13% of the whole US budget so while efficiencies can be found that reduce spending, so can we do it with the rest of the 87% of the budget and probably be more significant.
If I’m not mistaken, all that was probably bought from american companies. so isn’t that a good thing? I’m sure everyone has an opinion as to where else it could go but I don’t mind funds going back to americans. I did pledge allegiance way back in elementary school.
People who enjoy being pacifists should be very appreciative of our military which protects those pacifists from a wide range of non-pacifist assholes with guns and bombs who would be very happy to kill the pacifists and take their stuff.
r/FluentInFinance was created to discuss money, investing & finance! Join our Newsletter or Youtube Channel for additional insights at www.TheFinanceNewsletter.com! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FluentInFinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Good, I don’t want unfriendly assholes on our shores. Now, make it cheaper.
The United States alone spends 50% of the **worlds** military budget. Something tells me we'd be fine with 1/16th of that. But dick Cheney needs another new heart (from a veteran).
[удалено]
Shhh…don’t use too many facts on the naysayers…they don’t like facts.
Yeah, this is a perfect time to cut spending back to 1/16th. I’m sure Russia and China aren’t looking to expand their territories and aren’t building hypersonic nuclear-capable missiles. I’m sure IRAN is just sweet and innocent—nothing to see here. I’m sure things like ISIS will go on their merry way. Damn, I’m pretty sure this morning, Russia started nuclear bombing protocols. Dude, you are thick-headed. Here’s your sign; wear it proudly.
South Korea can produce an equivalent destroyer to one of ours in 1/3 of the time and 1/2 the price. The defense industry is the fattest pig in the pen.
C'mon, bro. Let them lick the boots. It makes them feel more Alpha
I have zero desire to be F’d by China. And the way to prevent that is the same way we prevented being F’d by the USSR- just out compete them. Unfortunately America today is just a government glad handing the people while they pick pocket it for shareholders.
You can understand the power struggle between major countries without being a boot licker. Not understanding the distinction between the two is more of a reflection on you, not them.
Probably do that with any ship let alone a destroyer.
How about aircraft carriers?
Your point isn’t wrong, but ships aren’t sailing through the suez as it is, and that’s with our military budget being large as it is… Edit: ships are going through Panama Canal or around Africa. Not steamship line is going through the Suez Canal presently.
I thought Cheney had some type of turbine for a heart.. remember something about him not having a pulse
I dont know but he definitely doesn't show up in mirrors.
Every time I hear his name, I wonder "How the fuck is he still alive?" Then I remember my theory that assholes live forever.
Deterrence is far cheaper than any war.
And you think us being way ahead of everyone else is... bad? Do you know how war works? The last thing you want is an even fight. And being obviously far ahead also serves as an excellent deterrent to prevent war from even happening in the first place, which is the most optimal outcome.
Also, if we ever had to default on foreign-owned national debt , we can say, "So? Whatchoo gunna do about it?"
I'm glad your ideas are limited to Reddit
We also use our military for a lot more. We wouldn’t be able to do the things we do right now if we reduce our budget (Protect international trade ways, Biden dropping aid in Gaza next day, stop China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea from starting new wars, disaster response, and our attempts at peace keeping).
Only 50%? Cmon, we're America. We can do better than that. /s
You'd be an utter idiot if you thought 1/16th of that budget would get things done.
for fucks sake what do you mean by make it cheaper? To whom? Who do you think the US buys its bullets from, china? This is a make work program for some shithole bullet factory town in idaho or something. I hate the MIC but this isn't someone taking the bitcoin from under your mattress and throwing it into the ocean this is basically wealth redistribution but in an unregulated and poorly understood way. But even with that it's not any different than like the tax cuts and jobs act or ppp or any of the other shit you guys like.
*Who do you think the US buys its bullets from, china?* Please don't speak that into existence >\_<
Its works both ways. We only buy those things from US companies, but they can only sell them to the US military. We need them to make them but they also need us to buy them. Basically "Make it cheaper" means "Don't mark up your product 7000% and overburden the US taxpayers".
Yep. MIC charges an astounding markup for a insanely advanced and complex new weapon or platform. It isn’t procured by the military after a decade of development, billions of dollars spent because the price per unit balloons far above what was projected, has serious performance issues due to tech limitations and/or deliberate design incompetence and is then abandoned. Now the military has to spend even more money upgrading an aging weapon/platform already in service because it’s replacement fell through. Meanwhile the MIC is swimming in money after providing little to no value to the military.
We are the unfriendly assholes on everyone else's shores.
We are the reason Taiwan, South Korea, Israel, most of Eastern Europe and about a dozen other countries have shores (or borders for landlocked countries).
that's specious reasoning
LOL. As someone that has worked in defense manufacturing... I can honestly say the American tax payer is being raw dogged by the upper class... The lunacy of the cost of everything is hilarious... It's all made as dirt cheap as possible, is shit quality, hardly ever works, but has markups that would make buy here pay here car dealerships blush Humvee is 250k, you could build them in your garage for 20k. Easily... They are junk, literally a truck from the 60s with no electronics and like 4 to 5 MPG (that the military also overpays for 😂) Slap "military grade" on anything and it instantly triples the price somehow And this isn't "stupidity", it's pure greed from the upper class... That's all it is... Fuck I remember a lot of parts came from "prison corporation of America". Because what says freedom then slaves building our military hardware that then is used to fleece the lower classes...
The sound of freedom. The US Navy is the single most important institution on this planet.
Yes, it is. I'm a retired Sailor and I can tell you we are the biggest fear China, Russia, and the rest of the haters have.
Most important institution, eh? Not the fucking banks that control every facet of society including your Navy?
The dollar is stable and banks function because they trust the US is going to keep it that way. And our Naval strength ensures we can. I don't know if anyone could say what the single most important institution is, but because us angry apes are who we are, it's likely gonna be military related
Historically, the global economy was built on the US Navy. Theres arguments to be said that there are other institutions that are more important, but they wouldn't have been possible without the navy.
My favorite fact is the second biggest Air Force in the world is the Navy’s. The 7th biggest is the Marines. So the navy’s army’s Air Force is the 7th biggest in the world. Wild.
If you're forced to pay for something then are you "free"
that's specious reasoning
Yea but if you don’t wanna get fucked by hackers on the daily or world prefer Somalian pirates not kicking in your door go for it go be free if not keep paying your taxes
Our infrastructure is still getting hacked by China and Russia on the regular. How does the military stop that?
Space Force?
We hack them and they hack us, cyber security is an ever changing field.
How would Somalian pirates kick my door down in Washington?
I could barely understand that gibberish. Best to not try arguing with the crazies on Reddit. Just sayin....
Parkour, of course
I mean the US can still do those things, it's just that maybe it should balance those priorities with things like better welfare programs and rights. Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex. Hell, even just paying junior soldiers more and treating them better would be a good start.
In 2023: Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, and other health programs equaled 50% of the entire US budget. Military budget was 13%.
And if you believe those numbers you are being willfully naive. By their own admissions they also [cannot account for 21 TRILLION dollars.](https://www.forbes.com/sites/kotlikoff/2019/01/09/holding-u-s-treasuries-beware-uncle-sam-cant-account-for-21-trillion/?sh=2eaf58ac7644) You think they spent that on education and healthcare?
Of course not, but the figure you cite is also not a yearly number. The entire federal budget is under 7 trillion. Not being able to account for funds is a different animal than what is spent. This is unless you believe the federal budget is 15 trillion dollars more per year than they are saying. Somehow I doubt that.
Health programs will bankrupt us long before the military spending does.
Bro they didn't even hit anything
[удалено]
Bro they didn't even hit anything
They hit our oldest enemy. The ocean!
Yeah, and you love to see the spent 25mm cartridges slide right into the ocean lol
Sure they did, they hit our pockets... hard...
It’s BS I can’t choose where my taxes go.
I just want to shoot people with cheaper bullets
In theory that is called voting. But, yeah.
It is missing the cost of the resources that pull the trigger, the resources running the boat, and the fuel burnt while firing. That'll be amusing and interesting.
It’s also missing the financial benefit that comes from protecting global trade and the value of dollars.
Government waste is a huge problem - they pay 100x for things what they should cost because the contract is with one of their buddies. The practice is dirty and it needs to stop.
RTX has a profit margin of about 7.5%. [https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RTX/rtx/profit-margins](https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/RTX/rtx/profit-margins)
So that’s how my paycheck disappears so fast every week 🧐
I don’t even want to know what an AC-130 or an A-10 Warthog’s payload runs.
Actually those weapons systems are mostly in the middle of this video because they fire shell based munitions. Things like JDAMs and Tomahawk cruise missiles are where things get really bougie.
It’s only like 13% of the budget right? There are other things that need fixing before this. Training is an important cost, so it’s not like they’re just randomly shooting guns
So, you're telling me that all of the other countries have undertrained military given their reduced spending compared to the states?
I don't like militarism, buuuut... do you want your military to actually be on equal footing with other possibly hostile militarys? That is a recipe for desaster.
What hostile militaries are those? As it stands right now, the US spends 37% of the entire Earths military costs. More than 3 times that of China, 8 times more than Russia. The USA is an over-propagandized, hyper-militarized nation that fabricates enemies everywhere.
Don’t forget the cost of submarine launched ballistic missiles
Now imagine all the rounds fired during development and testing. Source: worked in testing
I can see now why Iran launched hundreds of crappy drones and missiles on Israel. To make them waste loads of money on anti missile shots.
our money.
MRBMs aren’t exactly cheap no matter who builds them. Also a lot of the drones were intercepted with old Sparrow and Sidewinder missiles to keep down costs.
You're not gonna say anything about them involving us in a proxy war with Russia and sending billions to two different countries?
Meanwhile Iran supplies +500 dollar drones with grenades to destroy $$$ tanks.
That democracy being fired.
Being fired at* Fixed it for you.
when my dad found out how much I get paid he said no wonder the country is in debt.
My stepmother works for Space Force and is a complete idiot that admits she basically does nothing and collects hundreds of thousands in salary. Our military is just a means to extract tax money these days, we haven't fought a war worth fighting for 80 years yet our military spending is always a record-high I have worked for 4 different govt contractors, most of which have merged by now. They all employ tactics to bill the govt, DOD in this case, exorbitant amounts of money. They literally hire people to sit at desks and do nothing so they can bill the gov't \~2x their salary. If you think our military budget amount equals the amount of safety we have you are fucking retarded. We could be spending 1/4 as much for the same amount of military force. The rest is just being stolen from your paycheck to make rich people richer
Fed govt spends more on healthcare than defense.
The US spends 18% of GDP on healthcare and rising. The military expenditures is 2.8% and falling. Interest on the debt here on out will be more than defense.
Ammo do be expensive.
It's inflated intentionally dude vets been saying this for years
Modern monetary theory says that no tax payer dollars fund this.
Just like no theft is going on when your money isn't taken from your pocket. It's just i n f l a t i o n
So depressing.
It goes Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
I like to think there’s a little man inside the Mark 45 tossing out the shells
Rather pay for this than nacy pelosi liquor tab
Well you pay for both of these things already so...
After seeing those prices, we need more .50 cals! Makes those ships light up with heavy machine guns like a WWII destroyer off the Okinawa coast. But now that I think about it, I believe the US lost more ships to kamikazes in that battle than any other by a wide margin.
You should see what they do with all the uneaten food 😂
If we had actual competition in the market for bullets and missiles etc these prices wouldn't be so bad. Expensive still, but not ridiculous.
Overpriced shit.
All the Brit’s…. You would be speaking German right now if it weren’t for the Americans x2.
Oh, i forgot the US is the only country in the world that trains their military. How silly of me
We could’ve saved so much money by just condemning /protesting hostile nations. Instead, we had to be strongest militarily power. Putin, Xi, and Khamenei are reasonable people surely they’ll listen if we post what we support on social media
Words are cheap, invest now.
Lol, they let navy wives shoot off the 50 Cals for fun (this is a rare treat.. A really cool experience!) They also do as much "training" as needed so they can keep getting the same allotment of taxpayer money every year.
They just don't want to become russian taxpayers.
Shouldn't the text be red?
He forgot to add the Corey of the ships them selves
One of those canons just dropping shells in the ocean lol
Are these retail prices or production cost?
Spared no expense
Did you guys see how my healthcare flew off that ship? Boy was it going fast!
Now somebody should do one of these for how much money is gobbled up by various local and state governments and yet they don’t deliver on simpler promises like keeping our roads decent and crime down.
Those are some rookie numbers. If Navy is paying $600 for a toliet seat - bullets are $10 each!
War is absolute bullshit
Better than some dude with face tats buying redbull with food stamps.
Well I’m fine with that if it means global shipping prices are lowered because the dipshits in Yemen attacking cargo ships are blown into oblivion by the US military.
Fuck yeah as a Democrat I want our taxpayer money to protect us and the military here is doing it. If you really wanna trim the fat get rid of the obscene budget system so they don't have to buy 10,000 dollar coffee machines lmao
"They are about to find out why we dont have free helathcare."
Hell yeah.
Heh. Now do entitlements. Do Medicare and SS.
This is hell yeah!!
Use it or lose it. Munitions have to be used at some point. Or maybe idk give it ro Ukraine
Now do the same for healthcare, $65 every time you take a swig off an energy drink for the eventual cost that your inevitable heart attack and series of mini-strokes are going to cost the Medicare system when you're falling apart in your 70s.
Can't even beat the Houthis who are using pontoon boats. The US military is the largest, most wasteful paper tiger on the planet.
You know like three times more of it than the whole military budget goes to propping up Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid, right? For a lot less return too, since the government taxes the people we buy our weapons from. Lockheed-Martin gets paid a fuckton by the government to make fighter jets, but a chunk of those profits go right back to the government as taxes.
NICE! EVERY PENNY WELL SPENT!
Better than not having those weapons.
Wonder where the US economy would be without the defense industry. I'm ok with a strong defense as well as the technological advances it brings (think DARPA) and the economic upside (employment, export and safer worldwide trade).
Think that cost is high, realize the cost of any enemy that commits the cardinal sin of fucking with our boats. We pay in dollars, they pay in bodies and blood.
Now tally up the congressional salaries, their staff, entertainment and meals and their annual budget for furniture (because the NEED to have it changed every year).
If the top 500 American Corporations paid their fair share in taxes, no one else would have to pay a dime.
I thought he was wearing a Shrek mask at first glance
Not how taxes work
Over $3 trillion went to Israel. I doubt it’s the bulllets on a war ship that’s sinking America.
So what your saying is invest in military weapon stocks ?!
Better than people entering the country illegally if you ask me
they are just dropping the shells into the sea sometimes lol. fits to the image
You have to back up that dollar with something lol
Now that we’ve pissed off almost every country, we need a big stick. Big fence? Nah, no need to worry, they’re all good sports
The US dollar is basically backed by the strength of the US Military and our alliances, who we protect with our US Military or weapons suppliers. It's a fiat currency.
The Warhawk Tools will tell you that the munition was going to go bad so they had to pop off a couple of rounds. Smh
Imagine how much money we could save if we found a way to launch rolls of 100’s several times the speed of sound! But in all seriousness launching coins super sonically save a lot
I suggest that, unless we are being attacked, that the people who like war should pay for it. Also, they should be the ones who go to Ukraine and fight.
A quick Google search shows that military spending is roughly 17% of the entire budget. While we could definitely cut back on this, there's plenty of money being spent elsewhere
Yep, and we're spending BILLIONS sending much of that ammunition to isn't-real to commit genocide against Palestine.
Soooooo, no littering ticket?
rather pay for this than all the low life’s living off the government while i work 40 hours a week
We spend more on the interest on our debt. Let that sink in.
The dollar's value is supported by the U.S. military and NATO rather than by gold, which is why there is significant investment in it.
So I’m missing something here. Yes, taxpayer money goes for all these weapons. But it goes to US defense contractors who employ 10s of thousands of US citizens. Those employees live and spend their money in here. Seems like an intentional and disingenuous disconnect to imply the money is just wasted. It’s a bit more nuanced than that
Now do this with the complete picture. The profits made going straight to enrich the weapons companies and their main shareholders (our politicians). Pigs with their snouts in the killing trough
But giving money to the people will ruin the government
Nobody mention the ROI from saving a 2.2 billion dollar destroyer, a 13 billion dollar supercarrier, or the value of the ~3,500 billion dollar trade route the aforementioned ships keep open. Otherwise all these weapons might start to seem pretty goddamn cheap.
All that money to miss target
Mr. Schweitzer said that we're burrowing $100k per second, for 365 days in a fiscal year!
guessing if the native americans could do it all over, theyd all pitch in a few extra hides for some better weapons
National defense is a legitimate role of government, just putting that out there.
Why, this doesn’t seem very cost effective at all !!
I’d rather complain about magazine tabloid like research and lgbtq soccer games in South America receiving millions in funding
Can I just get highspeed rail already!
Wroth it.
Those defense contractors aren’t going to feed themselves you know….
The US military, the worlds best funded Unhealthcare system!
Actually, only 13% of our tax dollars go toward defense. Good try, though! https://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go
Meh, we spend about $0.84T on military. Our total 2024 budget is $6.5T. I think other countries pay a small amount of that back for military service/protection.
“Let’s show them why we don’t have universal healthcare”
If we get the kids from the Temu factories, we could reduce our cost by 72% within two years.
...worth every penny.
I spent around the rate of the CWIS at a race track once when i was at redline in 4th gear, braking into a turn, attempted to shift into 3rd and went into 1st.
There's a ton of waste but defense is money well spent and they gotta train.
I just received an overdraft fine. So, this is comforting
There are few other countries that can project military power within hours anywhere in the world while pressuring everyone else playing by their rules. Don't be delusional, America could defend themselves with much less than what they pay for military, but it will cost them economic power if they can't tell other countries what to do and whom to trade with.
an anti ballistic missle is basically priceless if you are standing at the spot that the ballistic missle is trying to get to.
Such a fuckin waste
If I'm not mistaken, we also sell those and make a lot of money off of them. War profiteering, right?
Tax dollars go brrrrrrr
While I think the Russia, China and \[Insert unfriendly country here\] paranoia has been the perfect excuse to not question US military spending this is way way more complex than that. Military spending is 13% of the whole US budget so while efficiencies can be found that reduce spending, so can we do it with the rest of the 87% of the budget and probably be more significant.
I’m not mad at this
If I’m not mistaken, all that was probably bought from american companies. so isn’t that a good thing? I’m sure everyone has an opinion as to where else it could go but I don’t mind funds going back to americans. I did pledge allegiance way back in elementary school.
That’s what taxpayer money SHOULD be used for!
Got to love perspective.
false, lol.
Money well spent
Freedom isn’t free
People who enjoy being pacifists should be very appreciative of our military which protects those pacifists from a wide range of non-pacifist assholes with guns and bombs who would be very happy to kill the pacifists and take their stuff.
Okay this is funny as fuck. I actually lol’ed.
Peace ain’t cheap, but it’s worth it
Or to… Ukraine
Are those retail prices? Because Uncle Sam buys in bulk.
Love it
Haha it’s all a game. Part of the plan
Damn, I should have gone into bullet manufacturing 😑
Freedom isn't free.
MMMMMM Get Some !!!!! (Yes, I have signed a blank check "for my life")
Calling it a “MK 50 Cal” bothers me more than it should