take a look at world military budgets

[CrazyHarij]

According to a newspaper i read some weeks ago the iraq war will cost every family in USA about $4000. That's pretty amazing. Hooray for USA!

Sweet, remind me to send a sympathy card.

 

[712]

Denmark 2.4!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH. If there is a war, what will Denmark do to help? We'll send a sub and a ship! (which ETA was after the Afghanistan war ended). Guss it's just symbolisim...

But be sure not to mess with us! Or, whatever...

 

[palindrome]

Doesn't this money basically get injected into the economy one way or another though?

 

[el Chi]

Yes. Only to be pumped back into the military budget.

 

[Raziaar]

Yes. Only to be pumped back into the military budget.

Ahhh yes... so what you're saying is... we don't have an outrageously expensive military budget like what some people are making it out to be... but rather that over the years, 100% of the money has been recycled and new money poured in. :cheers:


Hehe :imu:

 

[el Chi]

Ahhh yes... so what you're saying is... we don't have an outrageously expensive military budget like what some people are making it out to be... but rather that over the years, 100% of the money has been recycled and new money poured in. :cheers:

Yeah that's exactly what I'm saying :hmph:
And it's not "outrageous". It's "grotesque".

 

[DEATH eVADER]

You will probably be not surprised to here that military fundunding exceeds that of medical funding in the majority of countries (including North and South of the equator)

 

[Raziaar]

Aye, lets just give all of our money to all the other countries in the world.

EDIT: Since we're not using it for anything other than preparing a defense for the alien invasions of 2012

 

[DEATH eVADER]

Aye, lets just give all of our money to all the other countries in the world.

EDIT: Since we're not using it for anything other than preparing a defense for the alien invasions of 2012

Can you expand on this thoery of yours perhaps

 

[el Chi]

Aye, lets just give all of our money to all the other countries in the world.

Well, we did sort of rape it from them in the first place...

 

[Raziaar]

Well, we did sort of rape it from them in the first place...

Yes, I do realize the UK had a big hand in that as well, but i'm from the united states.

 

[el Chi]

Yes, I do realize the UK had a big hand in that as well, but i'm from the united states.

And the United States was exempt from the slave trade how?

 

[Adidajs]

The current administration doesnt give a shit about the Iraqi people.

when has any administration given a shit about the Iraqi people? huh? You think we cared about the iraqi people after the first gulf war? no, we let them get brutally slaughtered by saddam repressing the rebellions.

thnx for info el Chi about the military budget in terms of percentage of GDP. Guys it's a hellova lot more reasonable when you look at it in terms of our Gross Domestic Product. Conversely, one could look at the education budget of the US and compare it to a country like Lithuania, "omg, they don't spend anything for their children in schools. Just look how much the US spends for their children! They must really care about education. We Lithuanians obviously don't!" - see it's just as ridiculous.

This is just another tool to remonstrate against Bush and his cronies.

 

[Raziaar]

And the United States was exempt from the slave trade how?

Never did I say such a thing. I'm saying, we were part of it... so was UK and alot of the other 'western' countries.

It's always just so easy to blame everything on America, one of the world's youngest countries :-P

 

[el Chi]

Never did I say such a thing. I'm saying, we were part of it... so was UK and alot of the other 'western' countries.

It's always just so easy to blame everything on America, one of the world's youngest countries :-P

1. I said "we", thus I acknowledged that the UK was a major part of it, as was pretty much all of the western world.

2. It's easy to blame a lot on America because, in its short existence, it's acheived a lot. Both good and bad. Point is that for many current situations it is entirely possible and justifiable to blame America, given that they would have had some involvement in it. I'm not saying the UK's exempt (Who sold weapons to Saddam? Hands up Britain, France and the US!), but what I am saying is that in many cases where the US is blamed, it's not without good cause. So go CIA!

 

[Raziaar]

I just wanna add one more thing. While first saying i'm not racist in any way, and I hate racism.

Way back before the slave trade started, slavery was practiced in all sorts of countries... and alot of people sold out their own bretheren and enemies in africa to the slave traders.

I just find it kinda silly how despite slavery's existance countless centuries before america was born, it's seen as the worst offender of all time when it comes to it.

 

[Tom.]

America is the most recent example of the slave trade, indeed probably the most massive trade in recorded history. Personally, for me, its ancient history.

One thing for war-haters to bear in mind, is that without military spending over the last 50 years or so, you wouldn't have anything like the level of technology in our homes that you now have. I'm not condoning it, just pointing it out.

 

[Raziaar]

America is the most recent example of the slave trade, indeed probably the most massive trade in recorded history. Personally, for me, its ancient history.

One thing for war-haters to bear in mind, is that without military spending over the last 50 years or so, you wouldn't have anything like the level of technology in our homes that you now have. I'm not condoning it, just pointing it out.

I've said it more than once... but that not only applies to modern day, but throughout the whole course of history. If noone warred, we'd still be a very primitive people in many many regards. War and the need for better technology has spurred the development of many marvelous... and many devastating things.

 

[what!?]

Didn't the Defense Department invent the internet? The research arm of the U.S. military has produced many priceless advances in our way of life including the internet and gps.

P.S. what is that Dilbert quote? "I wish everyone in the world would lay down their weapons so I could conquer it with a butter knife."
Someone needs to keep order and peace, and force is much more powerful than talk.

 

[Tr0n]

Good quote...and your right if it wasn't for our military there would be no intraweb!!!

Edit: OOOO...that quote is sig material!

 

[The Mullinator]

heh, its an interesting way of thinking about it. If the world militaries all dissolved it certainly wouldn't be difficult for one powerful force to take advantage of such a situation.

 

[kidrock450]

Very true. Think of what would happen if they sent all that money to build schools and stuff in Africa and stuff?

PEACE

I would rather send my money to prevent things like 9/11 from happening again then to some african country...

 

[Tr0n]

Lucky we have enough money to do both.

 

[gh0st]

According to a newspaper i read some weeks ago the iraq war will cost every family in USA about $4000. That's pretty amazing. Hooray for USA!

1,080,000,000,000. I dont think we've spend 1.08 trillian dollars on the iraq war :\.

 

[sHm0zY]

With the war on terror etc we have seen the US quite dramatically increase
military spending to very high levels (extra 100bn per yr) and by taking a look at this link u can see how far ahead they really are.

http://www.cdi.org/budget/2004/world-military-spending.cfm

Interesting to see Iraq down the bottom.

wow the US spent allot on military look at canada we dont have any problem's I think... *sings ohh candada*

 

[Raziaar]

You must also remember, that alot of that money goes towards the companies that design and build alot of the other western allied world's military equipment too. Everything we spend money on for research and development isn't just for the United States you know. There are some countries that use our aircraft and stuff too, like britain.(I believe they do anyways... too much information swirling in my brain from discovery wings :-P)

 

[gh0st]

You must also remember, that alot of that money goes towards the companies that design and build alot of the other western allied world's military equipment too. Everything we spend money on for research and development isn't just for the United States you know. There are some countries that use our aircraft and stuff too, like britain.(I believe they do anyways... too much information swirling in my brain from discovery wings :-P)

dont bother, they dont listen to logic.

 

[Korgoth]

Logic? Whats this logic you speak of? Would logic be spending millions upon millions of dollars on weapons to kill eachother, when we could spend that money on food to feed starving children. Is money spent on research and development of new chemicals, and biological agents that have no use other than to kill and destroy logical, when we could be researching and developing cures for illness that already exists today? Nothing is logical about ANY military (not just the US, so don't go calling me a commie and what not) no one listens to logic gh0st, haven't you learned that yet?

 

[Raziaar]

What I fail to see... is why the world's problem with third world countries and their hunger always is viewed as america's problem. We get blamed that the world has starving people far beyond our homeland, like its somehow our fault. The fact of the matter is, we have people in the country that do help foreign countries based on the good will of their hearts. Our government needs to look out foremost for its own country, and not the world's needs.

The hunger problems in the other countries are largely in part because of the governments of that country, who either refuse to tend to the needs of their people adequately, or fail to negotiate trade deals with countries that could in fact help them(if they don't have proper land to grow their own food, etc), because of their political stances or religion or whatever other nonsense.

America did not plant the seeds for all the world's problems as they are today. The fact of the matter is, the world is full of turmoil because of many issues that do not nessesarily even involve the united states. The world was a very chaotic, crazy place before the united states ever even existed... and it would continue to be even if the United States somehow magically dissapeared or was destroyed. It's always easier to blame someone else for all of your problems, but usually it is not even close to the truth.

 

[Korgoth]

no no no, you didn't read my post, i didn't single us americans out, i said everyone and then i went on to say that no one listens to logic... You've totally misinterpreted me so don't try and debate me on this ok. If you think its better to spend money on bombs thats all well and good, but we as humans NEED other things. Re-read my post dear friend and you shall see.

 

[Raziaar]

My response wasn't aimed at you. It was aimed at all the people who adopt those views i'm talking about... and there's a hell of a lot of them.

You just influenced what I was talking about.


EDIT: And well... to actually respond to your post, We don't just spend money on weapons. You see, America is a very rich country, probably one of the richest if not THE richest in the world. We have tons of money to spend, even though we have alot of national debt. Out of all that money we do spend, the military budget is just a fraction of it. The richer a country is and the more money they have to spend, the more things scale so that they appear very large when in comparison to countries with alot less to spend.

For example, say we have 10,000 dollars as an annual budget, and we spend 2,000 of that on military means. Then, we take that same idea, but only using 10,000,000,000,000 as a budget instead. The amount spent on military could be 2,000,000,000,000

While that is a large amount of money, that's still only a fraction of what is spent. If you compare that secondary value to other countries on that list to the United States, the difference in actual money is very large, but still, it's the same percentage.

 

[Korgoth]

oh ok then sorry for the confusion... It was just to coincidental so I took it as it was aimed towards me/what I said. I see your point, and I don't think america should have to carry the burden of the rest of the world. But I do think the wealthier countries (US, Brit., Japan, etc. etc.) should do a lot more, and not saying we don't do a lot now, because we do. But we can always do more, and waste less... But thats wishfull thinking and will NEVER happen so, oh well...

 

[Raziaar]

Here's a good link to examine over

http://liberalindex.org/military-relative-size.php#gdp-graph


EDIT: Can anybody find a webpage depicting how much debt foreign countries(foreign to the united states anyways) have? I'd be interested in doing a comparison of those with the united states.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

you can find all kinds of international stats on nationmaster.com. problem is their sources are often fairly dated. here's the external (foreign) debt chart:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph-T/eco_deb_ext

 

[Raziaar]

Thanks! That's a very interesting site.

 

[DanceMag]

Wheres the UK in that? does that mean we are like below the top 100?

 

[Raziaar]

I dunno. UK isn't even listed under 'all'.

 

[Lil' Timmy]

yeah, that's the other problem with that site; there are several stats that are not represented for many countries. i'm not sure why nationmaster doesn't have those informations, i'm sure the UKs foreign debt is known and a matter of public record.. france, germany and italy (among others) are similarly un-represented.

anyway, here's the UKs economics page:
http://www.nationmaster.com/country/uk/Economy

 

[el Chi]

dont bother, they dont listen to logic.

I'm sorry, are you referring to people who oppose or question such high military budgets? Exactly at what point during this debate did the majority of that perspective resort to absolute bullsh*t and completely blind straw-clutching?

Sorry for the long post but here goes...

In reference to other comments:
Yes, the military have helped develop some very useful gadgets and gizmos and yes, military research dollars are made back when certain weapons are sold to other countries. My problem is that the amount poured in is so much higher than budgets for schools, hospitals and other public amenities.
Raziaar, as I have pointed out already, yes America is rich and so naturally their military budget will be higher than many which is why I posted what percentage of the US's GDP was spent on the military and, in proportion it was more than most; out of the few I looked at, only Israel surpassed it.

With regards to America being blamed for Third World poverty: Yes, you're right that it's not fair that the US should take the brunt of the blame. However, they are one of the richest nations on the planet and therefore become the obvious target for people wanting to reprimand the Western World. It's not entirely fair but that's the way it often goes. However, this is not to say that the US is utterly exempt from blame - many huge corporations based in the US take complete advantage of Third World countries in the form of sweat shops, etc.

Finally I would like to resort to absolute bullsh*t and blind sraw-clutching whilst I merely state my opinion that the Third World debt should be dropped. That is all.