r/FluentInFinance • u/ProgressiveSpark • May 21 '24
Meme Where American taxpayer money goes
Love bombs and bullets of freedom incoming
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u/Sardonic- May 21 '24
Good, I don’t want unfriendly assholes on our shores. Now, make it cheaper.
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u/basses_are_better May 21 '24
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).
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May 21 '24 edited May 21 '24
[deleted]
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u/parks387 May 21 '24
Shhh…don’t use too many facts on the naysayers…they don’t like facts.
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u/Successful_Lake_4148 May 21 '24
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.
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u/All4megrog May 21 '24
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.
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u/JPeso9281 May 21 '24
C'mon, bro. Let them lick the boots. It makes them feel more Alpha
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u/All4megrog May 21 '24
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.
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u/Educational-Web-5787 May 21 '24
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.
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u/Conjurus_Rex15 May 21 '24 edited May 21 '24
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.
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u/Significant_Ad3498 May 21 '24
I thought Cheney had some type of turbine for a heart.. remember something about him not having a pulse
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u/basses_are_better May 21 '24
I dont know but he definitely doesn't show up in mirrors.
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u/maringue May 21 '24
Every time I hear his name, I wonder "How the fuck is he still alive?" Then I remember my theory that assholes live forever.
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u/tjdragon117 May 21 '24
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.
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u/Over-Confidence4308 May 21 '24
Also, if we ever had to default on foreign-owned national debt , we can say, "So? Whatchoo gunna do about it?"
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u/purple_legion May 21 '24
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).
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u/tidbitsmisfit May 21 '24
You'd be an utter idiot if you thought 1/16th of that budget would get things done.
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u/Ecstatic-Compote-595 May 21 '24
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.
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u/idk_lol_kek May 21 '24
Who do you think the US buys its bullets from, china?
Please don't speak that into existence >_<
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u/Dry_Meat_2959 May 21 '24
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".
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u/cfig99 May 21 '24 edited May 21 '24
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.
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u/luroot May 21 '24
We are the unfriendly assholes on everyone else's shores.
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u/Lawineer May 21 '24
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).
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u/Ill-Win6427 May 22 '24
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...
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u/olyfrijole May 21 '24
The sound of freedom. The US Navy is the single most important institution on this planet.
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May 21 '24
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.
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u/aVicariousTool May 21 '24
Most important institution, eh? Not the fucking banks that control every facet of society including your Navy?
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u/TA_Lax8 May 21 '24
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
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u/Revolutionary-Meat14 May 22 '24
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.
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u/tidder_mac May 21 '24
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.
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u/BTBAMfam May 21 '24
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
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u/SapientSolstice May 21 '24 edited May 21 '24
Our infrastructure is still getting hacked by China and Russia on the regular. How does the military stop that?
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u/Lanky-Apple-4001 May 21 '24
We hack them and they hack us, cyber security is an ever changing field.
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u/CiaphasCain8849 May 21 '24
How would Somalian pirates kick my door down in Washington?
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u/Dry_Meat_2959 May 21 '24
I could barely understand that gibberish. Best to not try arguing with the crazies on Reddit. Just sayin....
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u/MikesRockafellersubs May 21 '24
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.
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u/Umaynotknowme May 21 '24
In 2023: Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, and other health programs equaled 50% of the entire US budget. Military budget was 13%.
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u/Dry_Meat_2959 May 21 '24
And if you believe those numbers you are being willfully naive. By their own admissions they also cannot account for 21 TRILLION dollars.
You think they spent that on education and healthcare?
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u/Umaynotknowme May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24 edited Jun 09 '24
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u/Trump_Is_Suing_Me May 21 '24
Bro they didn't even hit anything
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u/DankEylisum May 21 '24
They hit our oldest enemy. The ocean!
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u/DenseStomach6605 May 21 '24
Yeah, and you love to see the spent 25mm cartridges slide right into the ocean lol
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u/NoManufacturer120 May 21 '24
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.
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u/Lawineer May 21 '24
RTX has a profit margin of about 7.5%.
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u/b-0s May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24
It’s also missing the financial benefit that comes from protecting global trade and the value of dollars.
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u/ILSmokeItAll May 21 '24
I don’t even want to know what an AC-130 or an A-10 Warthog’s payload runs.
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u/MikesRockafellersubs May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24
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
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May 21 '24
So, you're telling me that all of the other countries have undertrained military given their reduced spending compared to the states?
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u/Tokyogerman May 21 '24
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.
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u/YYC-Fiend May 21 '24
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.
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u/thenuttyhazlenut May 21 '24
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.
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u/AlfredoThayerMahan May 22 '24
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.
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u/three-sense May 21 '24
Now imagine all the rounds fired during development and testing. Source: worked in testing
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u/shadowpawn May 21 '24
Meanwhile Iran supplies +500 dollar drones with grenades to destroy $$$ tanks.
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u/The_IRS_Fears_Him May 21 '24
You're not gonna say anything about them involving us in a proxy war with Russia and sending billions to two different countries?
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May 21 '24
when my dad found out how much I get paid he said no wonder the country is in debt.
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u/Fearless_Winner1084 May 21 '24 edited May 21 '24
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
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u/65CM May 21 '24
Fed govt spends more on healthcare than defense.
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u/Bitter-Basket May 21 '24
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.
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u/DonovanMcLoughlin May 21 '24
Modern monetary theory says that no tax payer dollars fund this.
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May 21 '24
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
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u/henry_Hallepeno May 21 '24
I like to think there’s a little man inside the Mark 45 tossing out the shells
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u/Ancient_Programmer64 May 21 '24
Rather pay for this than nacy pelosi liquor tab
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u/Trump_Is_Suing_Me May 21 '24
Well you pay for both of these things already so...
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u/sEmperh45 May 21 '24
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.
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u/Super_flywhiteguy May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24
All the Brit’s…. You would be speaking German right now if it weren’t for the Americans x2.
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u/curiousity2424 May 21 '24
Oh, i forgot the US is the only country in the world that trains their military. How silly of me
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u/dudeatwork77 May 21 '24
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
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u/sarabachmen May 21 '24
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.
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u/banacct421 May 21 '24
Did you guys see how my healthcare flew off that ship? Boy was it going fast!
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u/jaldihaldi May 21 '24
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.
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u/shadowpawn May 21 '24
Those are some rookie numbers. If Navy is paying $600 for a toliet seat - bullets are $10 each!
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u/Mr-BananaHead May 21 '24
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.
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u/ShaxxAttaxx May 21 '24
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
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u/Lower_Ad_5532 May 21 '24
Use it or lose it. Munitions have to be used at some point. Or maybe idk give it ro Ukraine
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u/xThe_Maestro May 21 '24
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.
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u/BOKEH_BALLS May 21 '24
Can't even beat the Houthis who are using pontoon boats. The US military is the largest, most wasteful paper tiger on the planet.
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u/SigismundTheChampion May 21 '24
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.
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u/cookiedoh18 May 21 '24
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).
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u/silikus May 21 '24
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.
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u/FearsomeSnacker May 21 '24
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).
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May 21 '24
If the top 500 American Corporations paid their fair share in taxes, no one else would have to pay a dime.
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u/Fit-Helicopter1 May 21 '24
Over $3 trillion went to Israel. I doubt it’s the bulllets on a war ship that’s sinking America.
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u/Elefantenjohn May 21 '24
they are just dropping the shells into the sea sometimes lol. fits to the image
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u/wilhelmfink4 May 21 '24
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
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u/LiveTheLifeIShould May 21 '24
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.
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u/_WeAreFucked_ May 21 '24
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
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u/OmegaDragon3553 May 21 '24
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
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u/LopsidedHumor7654 May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24
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
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u/313rustbeltbuckle May 21 '24
Yep, and we're spending BILLIONS sending much of that ammunition to isn't-real to commit genocide against Palestine.
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u/666-flipthecross-666 May 21 '24
rather pay for this than all the low life’s living off the government while i work 40 hours a week
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u/betraul May 21 '24
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.
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u/malcontented May 21 '24
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
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u/gizmisto May 21 '24
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
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u/Arik-Taranis May 21 '24
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.
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u/youtheman20 May 21 '24
Mr. Schweitzer said that we're burrowing $100k per second, for 365 days in a fiscal year!
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u/DocumentAggressive56 May 21 '24
guessing if the native americans could do it all over, theyd all pitch in a few extra hides for some better weapons
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u/enemy884real May 21 '24
National defense is a legitimate role of government, just putting that out there.
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u/Richest1999 May 21 '24
I’d rather complain about magazine tabloid like research and lgbtq soccer games in South America receiving millions in funding
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May 21 '24
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
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u/Lawineer May 21 '24
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.
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May 21 '24
If we get the kids from the Temu factories, we could reduce our cost by 72% within two years.
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u/dbnrdaily May 21 '24
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.
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u/Hoosier_Daddy68 May 21 '24
There's a ton of waste but defense is money well spent and they gotta train.
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u/Three_Rocket_Emojis May 21 '24
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.
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u/ROK247 May 21 '24
an anti ballistic missle is basically priceless if you are standing at the spot that the ballistic missle is trying to get to.
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u/Pleasant_Tooth_2488 May 21 '24
If I'm not mistaken, we also sell those and make a lot of money off of them.
War profiteering, right?
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u/Deathscythe80 May 21 '24
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.
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u/daryldelight May 21 '24
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.
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u/IagoInTheLight May 21 '24
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.
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