Just tax billionaires and we can have all of the above and a surplus budget.
How about we tax billionaires and also not give giant gifts to defense companies every year?
unless conflicts end worldwide I want my country to maintain the highest level of military technology and local capacity to ramp up if needed. That being said I don’t want my country involved with every conflict in the world.
If the USA wouldn’t be randomly invading countries every few years, they could keep the same level of military technology while spending much less.
The Iraq war did nothing to increase the US military’s capabilities but just wasted enourmous amounts of money while killing civilians on a daily basis.
As a Finn I don’t want the US to stop fully… but they have a huge amount of excess, it’s insane how much money they waste
If it’s at the expense of everything else that could help the state of the country and quality of life, what’s the point?
I’m pretty sure the U.S. can do that without an $816.7 billion defense budget, much of which goes to giant corporations, and without being larger than the next 20 militaries combined.
How about we do a $400 billion defense budget and only be larger than the next 10?
Yeah, because that for sure will stop other world powers from arming themselves and attacking others.
And to answer upcoming question: why we should care not others instead of ourselves. No one attacks us militarily (we are attacked via hubris warfare with disinformation such as this though) because we are armed.
Why would being ten times larger than the next ten militaries in the world combined instead of the next twenty make us likely to be attacked?
defense companies
You mean mercenaries and arms dealers. The only thing they’re defending is their profits.
I can’t believe how many people on Lemmy of all places are defending massive defense budgets.
Wouldn’t the billionaires just create private LLC to hold their funds? And they are not income based taxes, this would have to be based on shares or assets, net worth.
Taxing billionaires can help, but we also need to see that they contribute to what laws and rules get made, using lobbyists and support from politicians they fund.
Please inform and educate me, for those that have thought more on this!
I can’t speak on the billionaires but wealthy people are already utilizing private LLCs to do exactly what you are talking about.
Yes, I agree.
Some have proposed closing loopholes, “extremists” on the republicans and democrat side.
I was asking for information on how and what exactly can be done, with any videos or articles talking on the subject, if y’all have seen or watched any.
Just finished listening to August Nimtz on Upstream podcast. He explains why voting for the lesser evil will always push you further right.
So this sounds interesting, but depressing. Is it all just doom or does he propose realistic actionable solutions?
August H. Nimtz, Ph.D., is a professor of political science …He specializes in Marxism
What a surprise that the guy who thinks violence is the only way to make political change thinks voting is useless
Thanks for the info!
Yes, voting for the status quo will not change anything.
We learned this from Justice Dems. and Bernie Sanders in 2016/2020, you can’t change the system from within, the system will change you.
I watch Richard Wolff, so will watch his interview with August Nimtz.
What Marxism Teaches Us About the Trump Moment & Capitalism in Crisis - August H. Nimtz Jr. [4:59 | Aug 2, 2021 | Democracy At Work]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIo4QSVifbY
Economic Update: Best Years of U.S. Lie in its Past [29:35 | Aug 2, 2021 |Democracy At Work]
We would have money for both if we taxed the rich.
The USA spends twice as much on public healthcare than it does on defense.
(Medicare and Medicaid = 1.4 trillion per year, vs. defense = 700 billion per year)
The problem isn’t that tax money is being used for defense.
The problem is that healthcare prices are insane in the US, and that the government isn’t allowed to negotiate lower prices (even though they have the weight to do so).
The real problem is that US insurance/healthcare was specifically designed to tie you to an employer.
Absolutely true. In the late 40s, when other countries were setting up public healthcare, we didn’t do it because we didn’t need to since employers offered healthcare plans. So it didn’t happen for us. Now there is no political will, because employers LOVE the leverage it gives them.
Kind of funny that it’s an F-16 used here. The 22 or 35 would have been even more apt as an example.
edit2: F22 is way more expensive than F35 nope, seems F35 is more expensive when you add A+B+C budget of F35, added links
True, looking at the F35 (A+B+C) and F22 buget and plans over the years.
Talk about bloated military budgets.
James Web Telescope budget is made by the same companies, so we know that projects are bloated by design or just by how they operate.
NASA vs. military, I am pretty sure some people would prefer to switch the budgets, hahahaha
One of the biggest budget issues with the F35 program is that maintenance and repairs must go through private industry. Corporations just continuing to milk profit at every level. https://www.defensenews.com/air/2023/09/22/gao-blasts-contractor-led-f-35-maintenance-as-costly-slow/
There was the semi-recent report following the plane disappearance in the Carolinas that pointed to the battle readiness of the F35 program being lower than is acceptable (don’t remember the percentage thrown out there), and a lot of that is due to the corporate side of the deal. Parts are not readily available when needed, repairs are going slower than we are used to, and this is on top of using newer technologies in an effort to PREDICT future conflicts.
I hope we have learned our lessons from the F22 and F35 programs. New tank designs for the successor to the M1A2 Abrams are popping up. We cannot allow future programs to continue to favor corporate profits to these levels.
We’d be mining asteroids and have a robot fleet sifting tritium from the moon surface
Edit: Helium-3, not tritium
An F-35 would have been better for this picture, but still a good meme.
Edit. Shit someone else said this
