How much Defense spending is too much? Too little?
by Slamfu
Considering how much we spend on national defense, it really is surprising how little the specifics of it get discussed, or even the broadest aspects of it. Most arguments seem to just boil down to something along the lines of either “more” or “less” spending without really stating a reason why to go in either direction. So I’d like to talk about it some and get some feedback from anyone who is interested, maybe even learn a little bit more. I’d like to start with a few premises.
First, I think we can all agree that we want to keep our military as the best funded and most capable fighting force in the world. Not only do we worry about protecting our borders from the armies of other nations, but we need enough military to match our role in the world as a major power with global interests. So simply having enough to deter an invasion isn’t our sole criteria.
Second, in keeping with the goal of maintaining our global position, there are other factors as well domestically like infrastructure and education and other services that like it or not the govt fulfills on behalf of it’s people.
Third, and most important in my mind, is that the amount of spending in other nations is a vital benchmark in determining how much we should be spending. I focus on this one a lot because there are several theories of defense spending out there, one of the most famous is that we need to maintain capability to fight 2 large scale theaters of conflict with a 3rd smaller conflict at the same time. This one has always seemed absurd to me because it’s basically the amount of force we needed to fight WWII, the largest conflict in human history. The idea that we should maintain such a force in perpetuity is a staggering amount of resources to commit, one no nation in their right mind would ever do.
To me, I would implement a rule something along the lines of we spend what the next 3 biggest guys are spending, plus another $100 Billion for good measure. As of this list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
that amount would come to $462 Billion.
Considering we spend about $800 Billion on Defense in total, that would free up $roughly $300 billion a year to go into better ROI places like research, education, and infrastructure that would create a lot more jobs and have much better future benefits for the country. In fact, I would argue that we are spending so much on defense that it is actually hurting our country at this point by making it weaker in those areas, causing us to lose ground in other critical areas of national importance. Just like maintaining large armies in peacetime has done throughout history, and the reason most nations didn’t do it. There are significant opportunity costs involved.
Please note, I have not served in the military but I have read an awful lot about it and probably know more than most, but there are going to be large gaps in my assumptions most likely and I would love to hear from anyone who can point out if I’ve made critical flaws in my thinking here.