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This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Death and Taxes Shows Fascinating, Terrible View on Military Tech Spending

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Ruthless, If you let me
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Thanks Jesus. I just spent 20 minutes zooming in/out and scrolling all over the place when I should have been working. A great way to start the day!
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Edited by Ruthless, If you let me at 07/23/09 11:53 AM

btrabucco
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
To everyone thinking the military makes up the bulk of the budget. This is showing "Discretionary Spending" - roughly 1/3 of the Entire budget. This does not include Entitlements such as Social Security, Medicare, and Food Stamps.

By far the "Gimme Gimme" part of the overall budget is the larger part.
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soulfinger
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
I always love how the first thing people bitch about when it comes to government spending is NASA. OMG we can't go to Mars, CUT THE BUDGET FIR NASA.

Yeah look how tiny NASA's budget is compared to everything else and STFU you NASA haters (if there are actually any on this site, i doubt it).
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nonpareil
07/23/09

@soulfinger: Seriously, people are fucking retarded. If anything, NASA's budget should be doubled or tripled, and some of the REAL bullshit on there should be slashed.

Get bent NASA haters.
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ninjamurf promoted this comment nonpareil was starred nonpareil was unstarred

Apoc28
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
One thing that is over looked here is how much money the US military makes. They hold TONS of patents. They develop a large amount of the high tech things you use today in part or in whole. I'm not saying that that covers all the costs but I'm also not going to bitch because we are the only super power in the world and I'm willing to accept that it has a price.
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Phroby
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Something of interest pertaining to this issue of military spending...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures

You'll notice that Japan, which doesn't even "technically" have a military (it's a "self defense force" damint!), is ranked fifth in defense spending world wide. It kind of makes sense then, at least a very tiny, little bit, that if a country that is legally bound to be peaceful spends about 48 billion on "self defense", a country embroiled in multiple wars across the world might have to spend quite a bit of money to keep tip top.
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aaj111
07/23/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
NASA is a lot smaller on that grid than I thought... That's kind of sad. But, there's a lot of money going in places I didn't expect.
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prabh1602
07/22/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Wish my country's budget was as clearly presentable as this. Its a 4000 page document full of legalese.

I think Americans underestimate the level of information that NGO's make available to the public. Things like these go a long way in making an informed decision.

Get Connected, Get Educated. Then Vote.
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Ryan Shores
07/22/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Remember the main picture is discretionary spending, not total spending. This just means this stuff is voted on by congress. Defense is about 20 percent of total spending, social services (social security, government health programs, welfare etc.) make up about 60%.
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RoyceNangerini
07/22/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Actually it says the discretionary budget is 1.421 trillion, which would in fact be 1,421 billion.
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gecko7jlk is enjoying the killzone 2 map pack
07/22/09

In reply to This Is Where Each of Your 1.421 Trillion Dollars Is Going In 2010
Thats complete bull! so defense costs 63% of total spending and then we get transportation and then health as teh second and third highest spening areas and they are not even close

no wonder we never have money for SCIENCE RESEARCH THAT COULD HELP WITH DEFENSE AND EVEN LOWER IT'S COSTS!

Complete and utter Morons the politicians in the US are.
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Elliuotatar
07/22/09

@gecko7jlk is enjoying the killzone 2 map pack:

I know, right? And people worry about the US not having enough for social security in the coming years. But if we simply cut our defense spending in half, we could affford to give social security to twice as many people without taxing our children to death.
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the real that guy dave
07/22/09

@Elliuotatar:
How about allowing us to keep our money and have these things covered by private enterprise THE WAY IT SHOULD BE!
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Jim Topoleski promoted this comment

Jim Topoleski
07/22/09

@the real that guy dave: Because most of these things private enterprise time and again have shown to be ineffective to criminally negligent in running thanks to the for profit nature of private corps.
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Paul
07/22/09

@Jim Topoleski:
As compared to the efficient nature of government? What's wrong with people saving on their own for their own retirement?
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Jim Topoleski promoted this comment Paul was starred Paul was unstarred

Jim Topoleski
07/22/09

@Paul: Because as it is now, even with savings, unless you are in a sector that supports its retirees well, even with saving money from day one you will be able to support yourself for about 15 years after which you will be bankrupt and having to be fully supported by the state for MUCH more cost to the public.
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Marc Mohon
07/23/09

@gecko7jlk is enjoying the killzone 2 map pack: The problem at this point is that, our entire position in the world is based on our military prowess, without that, we wouldn't have any of the money we do have for very long, i mean lets face it, what does the US actually do itself anymore? We have to rely mostly on the fact that if you piss us off, its not going to end well, and thats all we got :/. Everyone like to say defense spending is too high, but its all thats keeping us on top.
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Hello Mister Walrus
07/23/09

@Marc Mohon: You're wrong. Other countries care about America because it has a shitton of money generated from non-defense economic activity to spend on foreign imports. A trade embargo by the US would wreck a country's economy as much as a war would. Imagine the economic catastrophe that would befall China if the US suddenly decided not to buy Chinese goods. Likewise, if China and South East Asia decided not to sell anything to the US, our economy would fall into a depression.

The world is not a glorified game of Command and Conquer. Economic policy is far more important than military force. Countries do not trade with one another at gunpoint. They react to market forces. Additionally, you are wrong to say that military force results in economic gain. We don't pillage other countries for resources. Conversely, a strong military can only exist if there is a strong underlying economy to support it.

It's also dumbfounding that you believe that the US does not "do anything for itself" anymore. How can a country have the world's largest GDP without any economic activity?

I would further argue that people like you are a product of the country's poor investment in education and human capital. Evidently, you still believe that the threat of force can be used to solve complicated problems in international relations. Your post illustrates perfectly how the US could better itself by rethinking its allocation of resources.
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Edited by Hello Mister Walrus at 07/23/09 1:10 AM

commentotron
07/23/09

@Paul: Looks at 401 ass-raped by wall street: um, nothing? Did I get that right? I've been pumping cash into my retirement acct since I started work twenty years ago. It is heavily diversified and properly balanced. I revisit it every six months. I doubt it will be enough. And I make good money in the software industry.

The market, via lobbyists came up with "credit default swaps" and the "Financial Services 'Modernization' Act" and now we reap what the market has sown.
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Hello Mister Walrus promoted this comment Edited by commentotron at 07/23/09 1:31 AM commentotron was starred commentotron was unstarred

Hello Mister Walrus
07/23/09

@commentotron: I don't get it. You write of the "market" as if it is a distinct entity with its own consciousness. How is anyone not a part of the market? The credit crisis was precipitated by a real estate bubble, which would not have occurred if home buyers were not a source of demand for high-risk loans. It is ignorant to blame "Wall Street" and lobbyists alone.

It is unfortunate that you have suffered losses to your 401k account. However, consider this: if blatant capitalism did not form the basis of our economy, the entire population would have been much poorer to begin with. Without aggressive capital movement in the US, a prosperous software industry would not have developed in the first place - you would not have had a significant 401k account from which to lose money. Credit bubbles are an unfortunate side effect of this economic system that we have collectively settled on.
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Edited by Hello Mister Walrus at 07/23/09 9:09 AM

zophiel
07/23/09

@Hello Mister Walrus:

Love how they also seem to forget that the only reason there was a Housing Bubble was Government interfering with Banks forcing them to hand out high risk loans in the first place, had the Gov stayed out of the mortgage game the bubble most likely could have been averted, no matter what shady practices were going on at Sallie and Freddie
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Hello Mister Walrus promoted this comment zophiel was starred zophiel was unstarred

Hello Mister Walrus
07/23/09

@zophiel: I think everyone is to blame - politicians for valuing campaign contributions over sensible economic policies, consumers for using debt to finance lifestyles that they couldn't afford, and financial institutions for failing to quantify the risk on their balance sheets.
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jayteemo
07/23/09

@gecko7jlk is enjoying the killzone 2 map pack: like it or not, the US Constitution allows the federal government to spend money on defense. much of the government spending can be found no where in the constitution, therefore should be left to the individual states/people.
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Hello Mister Walrus promoted this comment jayteemo was starred jayteemo was unstarred

Hello Mister Walrus
07/23/09

@jayteemo: At one point, the US Constitution also allowed people to have slaves.
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