America spends more on the military than the next 10 countries combined, creating a huge debt burden for future generations!

The United States military should be the mightiest in the world, speaking softly, but carrying a big stick. Unfortunately, the out-of-control military industrial complex has resulted in wasted resources and a huge debt burden that is reducing the standard of living of current and future generations of Americans.

President Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex in his 1961 farewell speech. When Congress, bureaucrats, military leaders and private contractors all benefit from military spending, it is easy to understand why there is so much support for interventionalist policies. Private contractors spend a lot of money lobbying politicians because there is a lot of money to be made in the military complex. Just like with other special interest groups, any special interest that benefits financially from war will support politicians that are war hawks. Military installations are purposely spread all throughout the country, thus politicians from across the country are inclined to support military spending because it benefits their Congressional district, even when a weapons program might be obsolete.

Unlike the private sector, government spending does not have a natural trigger that determines when there is waste. Do we need aircraft carriers in today’s military?  Would the Navy or the contractors who provide carriers tell the Congress or the public that we should downsize? The incentives of those involved are to maintain or increase military spending, not to downsize or become more efficient.

 

Amazingly, U.S. military spending is higher now, adjusted for inflation, than it was during the Cold War, when military spending peaked at $677 billion in 1986.[1]  The U.S. spends an extraordinary amount of taxpayer money on the military. In 2019, the U.S. spent $732 billion on military spending, accounting for approximately 38.5% of worldwide military spending of $1.9 trillion. The U.S. spent more than the next 10 countries combined; triple the Chinese spending of $261 billion; and almost twelve times as much as Russia’s $65.1 billion. Most of the other top 10 spenders are strong U.S. allies, including France at $50.1 billion; Germany at $49.3 billion; the United Kingdom at $48.7 billion; Japan at $47.6 billion; and South Korea at $43.9 billion.

As a percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the U.S. spends 3.4% of GDP on the military, while the world average (when excluding the U.S.), is 1.8%.[1]  Per Wikipedia.org, the U.S. military has more than 160,000 active-duty personnel permanently assigned outside of the U.S. in more than 150 countries, including Japan 53,732; South Korea 26,416; Germany 33,959; and Italy 12,249.[2]  World War II ended 75 years ago, yet we still have 100,000 soldiers stationed in Germany, Italy and Japan. In today’s world, technology plays a key role in determining who will be the most effective military. If the U.S. spends a lot of money on unnecessary bases around the world, that leaves less money for military technology, research and development; thus, more spending doesn’t necessarily mean a more effective military.

The military industrial complex is one of the main reasons the U.S. has such a high national debt.  If the U.S. reduced military expenditures by 25% when the Cold War ended, the current U.S. federal national debt would likely be at least $7 trillion lower than it is now. In addition to direct military expenditures, there is the cost of interest to carry the debt that has been created by overspending. These wasted resources have had a negative impact on the American GDP.

Whenever America wastes resources, those resources cannot be used in productive ways. For example, if the U.S. has 400,000 more soldiers than we actually need, those 400,000 soldiers cannot be employed in the private sector performing productive jobs that would raise the national GDP by $40 -$60 billion; thus increasing the national income and improving the standard of living. 

 

As with any excess government employee, excess soldiers produce nothing of value. If the U.S. decreased military budget by 25%, it would spend $549 billion, more than double what China spends. The $183 billion in savings could be used to pay down the national debt in an attempt to avoid a debt crisis in the future. A phased reduction in the military budget of 5% a year over five 5 years, would reduce the budget by 25% and would give the military time to figure out which expenditures are not essential to our national defense.

It should not be surprising that killing the families and friends of people in other countries by the U.S. military results in deep seated hatred of the U.S. and encourages further violence. Brown University’s 2019 Costs of War Project estimated Post-9/11 War (Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Syria) direct casualties of approximately 800,000 people, including 325,000 civilians, 200,000 military and police, and 255,000 opposition fighters. These numbers do not include “indirect deaths, namely those caused by loss of access to food, water, and/or infrastructure, war-related disease, etc.”. [3]  If a country “accidentally” kills a family member or friend of an individual, might they have incentive to seek revenge against the U.S.?

On the home front, there is the concern of our own veterans and their families. One sure way to improve the health and safety of our veterans is to avoid unnecessary wars and conflicts, thus preventing death, physical disabilities, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and high suicide rates among our veterans.

 

Additionally, the U.S. would be very difficult to occupy because of the massive civilian firearm arsenal. The U.S. has by far the most civilian firearms in the world, at an estimated 393 million civilian firearms, while India is a distant second at an estimated 71 million civilian firearms.[4] There is no doubt the U.S. can defend itself against foreign enemies. The question is, will we continue to reduce the standard of living of current and future Americans because of special interest groups and bad incentives?

 

[1] Stockholm International Peace Research Institute: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database. (2019). Retrieved from: https://www.sipri.org/databases/milex.

[2] Wikipedia: List of countries with overseas military bases. (2020, December 6). Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_with_overseas_military_bases#United_States

[3] Brown University Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs: Costs of War. (2020). https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/

[4] Wikipedia: Estimated Number of Civilian Guns per Capita by Country. (2020, December 5). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_guns_per_capita_by_country