American Dream Turned To Nightmare With 54% of US Tax dollars Spent On Military

War Makes Us Poor

Many people who aren't comfortable with the U.S. invading other countries reassure themselves with the belief that at least war creates jobs for Americans. But is military conflict really good for the economy of the country that engages in it? Basic economics answers a resounding "no."

In a 1953 speech, President Dwight Eisenhower noted, "The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people." His point, quite simply: money not spent on the military could be spent elsewhere.

This also applies to human resources. The more than 200,000 U.S. military personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan could be doing something valuable at home.

Why is this hard to understand? The first reason is a point 19th-century French economic journalist Frederic Bastiat made in his essay, "What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen." Everyone can see that soldiers are employed. But we cannot see the jobs and the other creative pursuits they could be engaged in were they not in the military.
The second reason is that when economic times are tough and unemployment is high, it's easy to assume that other jobs could not exist. But they can. This gets to an argument Bastiat made in discussing demobilization of French soldiers after Napoleon's downfall. He pointed out that when government cuts the size of the military, it frees up not only manpower but also money. The money that would have gone to pay soldiers can instead be used to hire them as civilian workers. That can happen in three ways, either individually or in combination: (1) a tax cut; (2) a reduction in the deficit; or (3) an increase in other government spending.

Whatever other reasons there may be for war, strengthening the economy is never one of them.




///
So many facts......the tea makes them unable to digest REAL FACTS!!!!!

YOU WANT TO GET MAD? We had eight years of Bush and Cheney, but now you get mad! You didn't ... See Moreget mad when the Supreme Court (controlled by Republican nominees) stopped a legal recount and appointed a President Bush. You didn't get mad when Cheney allowed Energy company officials to dictate energy policy. You didn't get mad when a covert CIA operative got ousted. You didn't get mad when the Patriot Act got passed.. You didn't get mad when we illegally invaded a country that posed no threat to us. You didn't get mad when we spent over 900 billion(and counting) on said illegal war. You didn't get mad when over 10 billion dollars just disappeared in Iraq. You didn't get mad when you found out we were torturing people. You didn't get mad when the government was illegally wiretapping Americans. You didn't get mad when we didn't catch Bin Laden. You didn't get mad when you saw the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. You didn't get mad when we let a major US city drown. You didn't get mad when we gave a 900 billion tax break to the rich. You didn't get mad when, using reconciliation; a trillion dollars of our tax dollars were redirected to insurance companies for Medicare Advantage which cost over 20 percent more for basically the same services that Medicare provides. You didn't get mad when the deficit hit the trillion dollar mark, and our debt hit the thirteen trillion dollar mark. You finally got mad when the government decided that people in America deserved the right to see a doctor if they are sick. Yes, illegal wars, lies, corruption, torture, stealing your tax dollars to make the rich richer, are all okay with you, but helping other Americans... oh HELL NO. AND NOW YOU'RE MAD !
By: Katrina Wilson Gibson

Category:

Education

Tags:

• American
• Dream
• Crashed
• With
• 54%
• Of
• US
• Tax
• Dollars
• Going
• Into
• Military

[ProtectSouthOssetia]

the moment of truth is that there is enough money for ss and medicare if the u.s. stops wasting billions on illegal wars/occupations, imperialism, and trying to rule the world and impose their will on other people.also, tax cuts for millionaires are an awful thing to do.

[MRBLACKPEARL04]

It's American peoples fault for being lazy and stupid. They rather watch American idol than to ask questions and unite.

[JPSwissCheese]

i dont really know how you can talk about the american dream? America is still the greatest country on earth and even in a resision still hold the world highest living standards

[Licmycat]

Yeah. The politicians getting sent to Washington are working for the corrupt and killing rich men.

[TumisHumis]

@Insertings Not true. The National Debt is not even a real number. If you've ever looked at that little counter we have, it only goes up (not down at all) This isn't because we can't pay it, but because we don't. Never in the history of any country have they taxed their people to pay off some "National Debt" The Japanese Chinese and Germans buying up all of this horse shit are only doing so because if the U.S Government falls, their country will fall even harder.

[TumisHumis]

You do realize that proportionally, America spends less money on it's military than many countries. Just because we have ~250 Million tax payers and are the largest economy in the world 4 times over doesn't mean that we spend 54% of tax dollars on the military. That's a gross overestimation, and if you look at history, the war industry MADE america.

[Insertings]

America doesn't need to have a 600BILLION military budget PA. There is no point in it. If they cut it down to 200BILLION, then spend the 400BILLION on debt reimbursements so in the future America can have a bigger GDP and economy and then they can continue to spend more on the military. I don't see why the Americans think they need to spend 600BILLION on the military when they are in 14TRILLION debt. America needs to get a president with a brain.

[shadowofears]

@ProtectSouthOssetia Actually the israel lobby(AIPAC) doesnt want that..How will they milk you 3 billion $ each year to Israel??