why are americans scared shitless?

[pErvinalia]

Taxes pay for military expenditure. Military contractors (Boeing etc..) make billions for more yet more unneeded hardware ordered by politicians and military top brass who are in the pocket of the military contractors. It's a big con. People getting very rich on the backs of the taxpayers.

Yep. It's an industry. And a very powerful one.

[Clinton Huxley]

Good to see Blighty keeping its guard up, the Channel aint very wide.

[Seabass]

Also worth considering: the US only ranks 1st in the world in military spending in absolute terms. This should be predictable since the US also has by far the world's largest economy. But compared to the GDP of other nations, the US spend less on its military than 27 other nations. Yes, the US is in 28th place. And those DoD expenditures-compared-to-GDP are a fraction of what they were fifty years ago.

But it's so much more dramatic to say the U.S. spends more than the next thirteen countries combined!

Really has nothing to do with "drama", it's just the facts. As for GDP, its a terrible measure of anything related to the economy really. A really bad indicator. So many factors go into determining the gdp of a country.

GDP, Gross Domestic Product, is the one of the most widely used indicators of the national economy. GDP is the annual aggregate production of all goods and services in a country. One problem with GDP is that it does not necessarily indicate the economic well-being of a country since activities that are detrimental to the long-term economy (like deforestation, strip mining, over-fishing, murders, terrorism) increase today's GDP. Therefore environmental degradation is rarely accounted for in GDP calculations. For example, the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill showed up as a net economic gain in the US because of the expenditures associated with the clean-up effort. These expenditures outweighed the eleven million gallons of oil spilled into Alaskan waters.

just a quick look round the net...first thing that popped up, there is plenty of info as per why gdp is a bad indicator.
http://rainforests.mongabay.com/10gdp.htm

Besides that, look at the other countries who spend more per gdp: Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Iraq, Oman, Jordon. See a trend? These are countries with actual threats as neighbors. There are really no threats to the US. Mexico? Canada? Flawed, but good post overall ian. You are basically spelling out the problems with the US military industrial complex. That the US economy is based on military spending and warfare, it runs the economy, provides employment etc. Quite a terrible situation really.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... penditures

It may be factually correct, but it is deliberately misleading and intellectually dishonest. Of course the U.S. spends more on military than say, Norway, since it has over sixty times the population. If you don't like GDP, use per capita.

OK...per capital: 2008

Top 15 Military Spending Per Capita; (ranked approx.)

Israel - $2300/person
United States - $1950/person
Oman - $1650/ person
Singapore - $1625/person
Kuwait - $1600/person
Saudi Arabia - $1500/person
Norway - $1250/person
Greece - $1100/person
Britain - $1050/person
France - $1025/person
Australia - $575/person
Denmark - $550/person
Brunei - $525/person
Bahrain - $500/person
Netherlands - $475/person

http://www.nowpublic.com/world/top-15-m ... -overboard

Not even sure what your trying to get it? Trying to say that the US does not spend a ridiculous amount of money on "defense"? Not even sure what the gdp? per capita? etc "argument" (is that what you'd call it") is supposed to be saying.

I agree. The U.S. spends too much on military.

[FBM]

Them tax dollars aren't going to spend themselves.

[Clinton Huxley]

Imperial over-spend - it beggars all empires in the end.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I blame Darwin.

[Audley Strange]

I blame circumcision.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I blame circumcision.

You got cut off there, man.

[FBM]

Too many loose ends, I guess.

[Audley Strange]

Yes, you've a national subconcious angst about being bare in front of a world of pinko polo necks. So you have to make bigger surrogate penises.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm glad we're getting all this psychoanalysis for free.

[FBM]

Thanks for the turtleneck, mom!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thanks for the turtleneck, mom!

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the colloquial usage of that term.

[FBM]

Thanks for the turtleneck, mom!

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the colloquial usage of that term.

"mom" = "momma"

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Thanks for the turtleneck, mom!

I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the colloquial usage of that term.

"mom" = "momma"

Keep going.