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US defence budget, explained with cookies.
Phoenixs
Member Posts: 2,646
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Phoenixs
Member Posts: 2,646
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Interesting...very easy to understand and the visual is cool. Yay creative analogies
However- they criticize the US (I live there...just so my post makes sense) for spending too much on the Pentagon (IE military and company). I don't see the problem here. We spend more than Russia, China, NKorea and Iran put together. Good. That means we'll always be a step (or a few steps) ahead in technology, training, and overall quality. I see no problem with that.
The problem is when we take a lot of that money off to even it out, and then we lose that edge. Eventually someone's going to decide "Hey, let's start a war for Land/Religion/Other," and I'd rather be prepared for it. Preferably with very high tech weapons and a well trained military that will crush any opposition. But that's just me.
Not to flame it too much- taking some off for education is great. The kids are the future, they need to be taught well and the american education system does kinda suck. World hunger I can do without. Honestly, it isn't our problem. Yes, it's selfish, but we get nothing from it other than making us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Those not-as-hungry children are still poor, and still are going to live fairly miserable lives. Despite common belief it isn't our job to support the world's unfortunate people economically.
I have no problem helping out in emergencies and conflicts, but sending a constant money flow is kinda "meh" to me. If we have extra money, spend it on domestic issues. If we have left over after that, THEN use it to help others.
Just my 2 cents.
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Okay, okay, okay. Am I the only one that caught this? When he shows his "quarter" of an Orea for Energy Independance and Tavis says "That's not much" , Ben responds with "Well that happens to be 250 million dollars".
So Ben is trying to show us "simple math" with a visual aid, right? 1 Orea = 10billion. 1/4 Oreo now, with new math, equals 250,000,000 dollars. Hrm. Last I checked 1/4 or 25% of 10,000,000,000 was 2,500,000,000 or 2.5 billion dollars.
So I am supposed to take fiscal advice from a guy who like Oreos and can't tell that 25% of 10 billion is 2.5 billion dollars. Interesting...
Don't get me wrong, I believe that things like education and medical aid are definitely lacking in funding. I just don't think automatically sapping from defense is the ONLY way to go (especially with our penchant for making friends). I'd love to see just how much money a year is spent on over-bloated politician salaries. The thing I think is funny is if I were going to go on public television and spout out like I know what I am talking about in wasted money I would make sure my fractions were up-to-date.
"What is it I have against Microsoft, you ask? Well, you know how you feel when you wait for an MMO to come out and when it does you feel like you've paid to play it's beta test for another 6-9 months before anything even thinks of working the way it should? Being a network engineer you feel that way about anything Microsoft puts out."
If we did help other people in other countries maybe the world wouldn't hate us. Common sense ftw. Ever hear of the saying "You must be the change you wish to see in the world"? Maybe you should live by it for a week for starters.
______________________________
"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
A recent poll by the Program for International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland showed that most Americans still imagine that 20 percent of the federal budget goes to foreign aid. In reality, less than 1 percent of the budget is for foreign aid, and only about one-third of that is development assistance.
U.S. development aid has declined steadily over the past 15 years. The U.S. now ranks last among the 22 industrialized countries in percentage of national income given away in development aid: less than 0.1 percent. Tiny Denmark contributes ten times as much of its national income as American taxpayers do. Japan has been the largest provider of official development assistance for ten consecutive years.
______________________________
"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
A December 29 article in the Los Angeles Times titled "U.S. Aid Generous and Stingy" explained the misleading nature of these claims. Though the United States government provides more total money in foreign aid than any other nation, the article reported, "when aid is calculated per U.S. citizen or as a percentage of the economy, the United States ranks among the least generous in the industrialized world." The article cited a 2004 study from the Center for Global Development and Foreign Policy magazine that "ranks 21 of the world's richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5 billion people living in poorer nations worldwide." The study ranked the U.S. 19th out of 21 countries in terms of foreign aid. This measure combined public aid with private contributions attributable to tax breaks.*
And contrary to Sammon's specific claim, according to the 2004 study, Norway contributed more than the U.S. in both public and private giving on a per capita basis. Ranking fourth among the 21 richest nations, Norway was in fact just one of 18 nations that gave more per capita in public and private contributions combined than the U.S. Also, according to the Los Angeles Times' citing of 2002 data from the Center for Global Development, Norwegians gave an average of $0.24 per person privately (compared to the U.S.' $0.05) and $1.02 publicly (compared to the US's $0.13). The 2004 study, which combined many factors including trade, immigration and environmental policies, ranked America's "commitment to development" in 2004 seventh overall.
The article further reported that Patrick Cronin, President Bush's former assistant administrator for policy and program coordination at USAID and a senior vice president for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that "even using the American view of largess, the United States comes up short compared with other nations."
EDIT: Anyways the OP is talking about what the government does with our tax money, not what Americans do with their own money.
______________________________
"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American
If someone wants to attack us, they aren't going to have much trouble doing it, even with the most sophisticated technology.
And you're right... Who gives a damn about helping people out that aren't as fat as us? We could spend that money on like 500 more nukes, then we could destroy the world an extra 82 times.
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"Fear not death; for the sooner we die, the longer shall we be immortal."
Hey Malachi, I caught that as well: How can the word of somebody that can't even do rudimentary arithmetic be taken seriously?
He also makes various assertions without justification: i.e. he claims that it would only take so many billions of dollars to provide health care to all of the children in the U.S., yet he never says why and proceeds to make another assertion etc.
I found the entire cookie analogy to be nothing short of condescension; rather than subtantiate his claims about how the defense could be distributed, he proceeds slowly in order to further the analogy, thereby using the analogy as a sort of strawman.
I honestly do think that the defense budget is necessary: Making another retarded analogy, I consider America's military to be a sort of spring; if it were to be removed there would be no resistance for the other world powers (China, India, Pakistan... etc.).
What many Europeans do not realize is that their precious freedoms are only safe-guarded by America: How could their little utopian societies exist without our military technology? Besides, who is to say that we aren't developing technology to defend ourselves against something worse than humanity?
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
______________________________
"When Saddam flew that plane into those buildings, I knew it was time to kick some Iranian ass!"
-cheer leading, flag waving American
build even more bombs to kill everyone in the world then i'll do it,
but that isn't why I pay taxes.
Well put.
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Negative, this means nothing of the sort. This is a conceit. Communist countries don't spend any money on their militaries at all.
I was of the impression that it was the U.S. that hates the world.
Where would England be without the intervention of the U.S. in WWII? They would be spreching Deutsch, that's what. What about Germany, if America had let Russia take all of it? The whole lot of Germany would have been the broken rut that Ost Deutschland was and is recovering from.
Who would prevent China from usurping Japan and South Korea today? Nobody, that's who.
America might be the fat bully on the block, but she's also the kindest: If you want to talk about savagery and cruelty look at China, Russia and Iran. Everything that we have conquered, we've rebuilt (No, we have not yet conquered Iraq).
I agree that the U.S. could be improved, but demilitarizing it is sheer idiocy: You'd rather the insane fundamentalists that destroyed and currently run Iran monopolize oil, create nuclear weapons and envelop the surrounding countries?
Do you have any idea what China would do if the U.S. wasn't here? The way that they've treated the Tibetan monks makes the holocaust look like a Disneyworld attraction.
No, America isn't the best country in the world, but it is the only thing keeping the other (much more sinister) giants from taking over.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Where would England be without the intervention of the U.S. in WWII? They would be spreching Deutsch, that's what. What about Germany, if America had let Russia take all of it? The whole lot of Germany would have been the broken rut that Ost Deutschland was and is recovering from.
Who would prevent China from usurping Japan and South Korea today? Nobody, that's who.
America might be the fat bully on the block, but she's also the kindest: If you want to talk about savagery and cruelty look at China, Russia and Iran. Everything that we have conquered, we've rebuilt (No, we have not yet conquered Iraq).
I agree that the U.S. could be improved, but demilitarizing it is sheer idiocy: You'd rather the insane fundamentalists that destroyed and currently run Iran monopolize oil, create nuclear weapons and envelop the surrounding countries?
Do you have any idea what China would do if the U.S. wasn't here? The way that they've treated the Tibetan monks makes the holocaust look like a Disneyworld attraction.
No, America isn't the best country in the world, but it is the only thing keeping the other (much more sinister) giants from taking over.
I never said spending money on militaristic things is bad, even ridiculously large amounts of money. But we could put a very very small portion of that money to other domestic affairs, and still have more than enough in defense.
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I was just reminding the Europeans that have attacked Americans (out of jealousy, perhaps?) that the world is far better off with America in control than it is the other alternatives.
Maybe there is enough to allot from defense to something else; unfortunately I have not seen any evidence to suggest that there is.
However, if you do provide it, then I'll consider it.
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Spending a lot of money on something does not mean that the money is spent wisely, nor does it mean you will win, technology does not win wars, in many cases you end up losing.
Damn byotch dat aint no friggn moon fool, dat be a friggn space station byotch.
lol, im glad I blow off US bashers, other than American Liberals!.. I look at it this way, the world has x amount of resources, I have a family, children, wife ect. Would I rather have those resources in my country!! Damn Skippy!! Means a better life for my generation and future generations! I understand why other countries call us greedy. Its not greed, its called survival of the fittest! So if you look at the long picture, the US is doing right in everything it does concerning resources!
People that bash or hate on the US only do so because of my beliefs above. I do not care about starving people as long as its not my people! My family, or my country! I do not believe in welfare nor complete socialism! There you go!!
Originally posted by //\//\oo
Where would England be without the intervention of the U.S. in WWII? They would be spreching Deutsch, that's what. What about Germany, if America had let Russia take all of it?
Britain defeated Germany at the Battle of Britain. The U.S. wasn't there.
The U.S. when it joined WW2 contributed fewer forces to the European theatre than Britain a small country of 40 million people. Had the Canadians not defeated Germany in the Battle of the Atlantic, the Americans would never even have made it.
America didn't stop Russia taking all of Germany. Russia volunteered to give most of it to the other allies of it's own accord. C.F. British and American controlled sectors of Berlin, dispite neither the armies fo Britain nor America being involved in the Battle of Berlin.
I think you overate both the size and effectiveness of the U.S. army in Europe at that time. While a very signifcant contributor to the last years of WW2, the U.S. was hardly in a position to stop the Russians doing anything, neither was America anything more than Britains weak cousin. The Germans were already on the run when the U.S. joined.
Oh dear, didn't Hollywood movies teach you that? Nevermind.
.
Comic in the extreme that you should want Japan and Germany to thank you for saving them from China and Russia when you were allied to both China and Russia in the pursuit of their destruction. For both of those countries the world would have been a better place without you.