Nate Gosbin Mr. Boruff AP Literature 13 February 2018 Military Spending Each year we continually increase our military budget, which does not contribute to the economy. The military budget in 2017 was $523.9 billion. The military budget for 2018 is $824.6 billion, and is larger than the next nine countries proposed military budgets for 2018 combined. In one year, the budget has skyrocketed $300.7 billion. There is absolutely no logical reason for this huge increase. The government is basically throwing away valuable money that could be put to use in a much better way. Military spending should not continue to increase year after year, but should gradually be reduced for years to come and the money put back into the economy. For the past 70 …show more content…
But the truth is that overspending on the military is bad for the economy. When the Berlin Wall was torn down and peace was breaking out, contractors viewed themselves as arms manufactures and had no solid plans for making anything else. Ideas like health care technology, clean energy, prefab housing and mass transit went abroad. The industrial capacity was focused on arming its single government customer. Those other high-tech ideas, both product and process, went to Europe and Japan. Meanwhile, skilled labor ran machine presses or studied the tail vibrations of fighter planes instead of setting up machine tools to spec or designing better televisions. Those jobs went to Taiwan and Korea. It is morally wrong to say that we must build the weapons because we need the jobs. The truth is that we'd create more jobs by just putting the money back in everyone's pockets than by making weapons, training soldiers and fighting wars. Besides this drain of capital, labor and technology, military spending is inflationary. Arms manufacturers can afford to spend top dollar for both employees and equipment, driving up costs for commercial industry, and weapons don't enhance commerce. The best you can hope for from a tank or a missile is that it rusts out. The worst is death and destruction. Automobiles, on the other hand, drive highway construction, gasoline delivery, and repair shops. …show more content…
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