| That Guy said: Why do we justify these HUGE defense budgets while at the same time domestic stuff like intrastructure (i.e. the Bridge in Minnesota, or the Levies in New Orleans) or Healthcare constantly get ignored until a disaster happens? |
The military budget isn't $711 billion a year. It's $1 trillion. Add the cost of murdering millions of Iraqis and Afghanis, nuclear weapons programs (squirreled away in the Dept of Energy), foreign military aid (a vast boondoggle), veteran's benefits and medical care, and Homeland Security (another vast boondoggle) and you get $1 trillion easy.
This is, as the economists like to say, unsustainable, to the point that even if neoliberalism wasn't melting down, our society would still be in deep, deep trouble.
As for why the US Empire is slashing its own financial wrists - that's pretty easy. Here's a clue: US 2008 = USSR 1990.
