USA to spend over trillion dollars to get ready for war of the future

How many Americans does the defense industry employ? ...most of those jobs must be rather good paying ones too, or so I would surmise.

The the govt. wastes an enormous amount of money goes without saying, in fact it should be screamed from the rooftops that they do.

The current Navy stupidity that has its own thread as a prime example... We can all come up with others with little effort.

I don't mind the spending, so long as its done with as little waste as possible. This is why it's is so important for us, as the tax payers footing this ginormous bill, to make sure it happens. But, for most of us, that takes far too much effort. So we get what we've got, a monolithic industry that is, essentially, unsupervised.

We wouldn't let a contractor working on our house get away with cost overruns, would we? Exactly the same thing here.

a reply to: Revolution9

In the next 30 years you say? The way things are going there won't be anything worth fighting for in 30 years.

originally posted by: CB328

I think there is far greater waste and fraud in our social programs.

Social programs help the American people. Weapons programs mainly help defense corporations.

When our army is attempting to fend off an invasion with the technical equivalent of rocks, you can talk about how many people were helped by it.

We already spend too much on military. The empire is sucking us dry. Theres infrastructure to fix and energy systems to harden against emps. And a lack of proper passenger train systems. And a thousand other things.

originally posted by: CharlesT
It's just fiat paper. One of these days the government will do away with the US Mint printing office and let Charmin and Scott tissue start printing our paper money

I would say that we are closer to fiat being eliminated completely. Then things get really fun. I bet 3/4 of all transactions anymore are 0's & 1's, all electronic.

We will never be able to pay off our national debt as is. It dosen't appear inflation is helping ease this situation as the overall sheep's pay hasn't inflated along with basic needs and commodities.

Sometimes I wonder if it even matters anymore. The stock market is pretty much a complete fraud, controlled by the large investment banks and central banks. Does it really matter if we spend this on items that specialize in killing other humans? No one seems to care about the moral aspects of killing other people that have different ideologies than us. Many of our industries manufacture nothing, mine nothing or grow anything. All they do is push paper. Our MIC is probably closer to the insurance or financing fraud companies out there. Why should it matter that they kill people and need to continue killing people for their industry to be profitable?

a reply to: CB328

So 33 billion a year.

How much do we spend a year on social services currently?

a reply to: seagull

I don't mind the spending, so long as its done with as little waste as possible.

There are ways to definitely do that.

Quite a bit of our money goes to research and development.

Which it shouldn't be.

The way it should work is they tell them what they want. The business makes it on their own.

Best system wins.

originally posted by: CB328

Just think of what all that money could do for the good of the American people if it was spent on us instead of given to defense contractors.

We (as in the American people) have already gotten 18.6 trillion dollars worth of crap that we haven't paid for yet.

What more do you want?

a reply to: Bone75

Our national debt could be 48 trillion and they'd still want more free snip.

Sad but true.

a reply to: seagull

The defense industry creates lots of jobs, sure. But a huge number of those are wasted money by Congress forcing pork-barrel spending in their districts to manufacture things that the Army (or whoever) doesn't actually want. Like the ongoing purchase of tanks to keep the General Dynamics plant building them running, despite the Army flat-out telling Congress that they have more than enough.

Or the idiotic programs that spend billions and get absolutely no result, like the many attempts to replace the AR-15/M16/M4 platform as a service rifle. Off the top of my head I can name five of those, and not one weapon designed for any of them ever went into service with US forces.

And then there's the constant attempted cutbacks that only increase the end unit price due to economy of scale, like the F-22 and Zumwalt-class destroyer. Amazing tech, costs an absolute fortune because they're only building three.

a reply to: ShadeWolf

Oh, I know.

Spending needs to be, somehow, streamlined and controlled. I have no idea how to even begin to do something of that nature.

It'd have to be draconian. Go in with a machete, and a blowtorch, and just slash and burn. But it's unlikely that'll happen anytime soon.

a reply to: CB328

It seems like we always have plenty of money for the offense sector but any other sector, "Gee were broke and cannot afford it"

Throwing good money after bad is futile.
We have been at war since the end of WW2 and the world is not a safer place and Americans are broke from it while the top elite enrich themselves from it.

So you don't even acknowledge any purpose in defense

To be honest, our military is entirely offensive, not defensive, and we already pay a gigantic amount in military spending. We don't need to pay any more. I am a veteran and I would rather see more of that money go to things like infrastructure spending that will help us and increase employment here.

originally posted by: neo96
a reply to: Bone75

Our national debt could be 48 trillion and they'd still want more free snip.

Sad but true.

Who doesn't? I love free snip.

I think the point flew over your head though.

90% of our national debt can now be attributed to do gooders such as yourself.

That's right... 18.6 trillion of our 20.5 trillion national debt is in the form of mortgages, car loans, student loans... that zero-radius lawnmower in your garage, etc.

The middle class has essentially enslaved itself over the last 9 years.

I just hope you guys can manage to keep paying your bills or we're all f#@!ed.

Its expensive to build hidden underground bases..

originally posted by: CB328

I think there is far greater waste and fraud in our social programs.

Social programs help the American people. Weapons programs mainly help defense corporations.

With a defenseless country that's well fed and not armed, let me know how long you think we will last when a well armed country decides they want the US.

It amuses me when people assume that other countries would have mercy should the US suddenly not be a top super power....the arrogance of that though is really funny.

originally posted by: pirhanna
We already spend too much on military. The empire is sucking us dry. Theres infrastructure to fix and energy systems to harden against emps. And a lack of proper passenger train systems. And a thousand other things.

Hardening the energy systems against EMPs would be a proper defense expenditure one would think.

a reply to: CB328

100% false. It's defensive. You do realize you need to win the battles long before they get to the US coast right? If they are parked of your shores you are screwed.

a reply to: jacobe001

I know right How much do we spend on social spending every year?

a reply to: seagull

Personally, I think you could get a lot of it under control by pushing Congress out of the decision-making, and more clearly defining each department's role. The latter would ruffle a lot of feathers the way I'm thinking about it, but it wouldn't hurt to clear out a lot of the institutional rot in the upper parts of the officer corps.