Military Needs Less Money

1120 Words5 Pages
Military Prowess or Improved Economy? The United States spends enormous sums of money preparing for wars that are usually caused by us. The United States spends more on our defense budget (39%) than China (9.5%), Russia (5.2%), U.K. (3.5%), Japan (3.4%), the next 10 countries combined (21.2%), and the rest of the world (18.2%). How is it that U.S. military spending, already exceeding that of any other country and at record real term levels since World War 1, is continuing to increase in the face of a dire economic crisis? The United States is supposed to represent and promote peace and global prosperity. It is contradictive to desire world peace and global prosperity when the fundamental way of ensuring continued U.S. dominance across the spectrum by having the most military power. Instead of building peace with other countries, we are instilling fear in them by showing if things don’t run our way, we’ll send troops into your country and forcefully take over. A high military budget isn’t needed because we simply can’t afford it. The ridiculous portion of our budget that is spent on defense could be much better spent on social welfare, health, and education. The United States usually leads the world in military funding. In 2012, the United States spent approximately $806 billion on our military budget, which covers about 27% of the country’s federal funds budget. We don’t need such a massive, sprawling military policing the entire world to be safe. Pouring even 5% of the money we spend on defense into education and health care would give this country some lasting benefits that would help us achieve a brighter future. We need to invest in tomorrow, not paranoid self-preservation. On the other hand, there is no avoiding war because war is apart of human nature. Having such a large military force has protected the United States tremendously without devastatingly
Open Document