this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Nothing funny about it. USA has a lot more money to spend, and spends a lot of money on overseas defence - basically bases across NATO and beyond - along with maintaining a huge technological advantage against any of its adversaries.

Yes, that is what I'm criticizing, thanks for spelling it out.

If you look at Russia, it spends a much higher percentage of its GDP on its military than the US

Comparing military spending by GDP is such a funny metric. It makes literally no sense whatsoever. Do you think countries should just keep spending more and more on their militaries as they develop, even if there is no practical strategic reason to? Do you think that countries with powerful rivals, whose continued survival depends on meeting certain level of military strength, should ignore genuine threats to security if it would mean spending a higher percentage of GDP than other countries? Complete insanity.

The only reason to compare military spending as percentage of GDP instead of absolute numbers is because the numbers are more convenient to your argument. The country with the biggest military is the most militaristic and the biggest threat to the world. Anything else is nonsense.

Things the US doesn’t need to worry about as much.

Really? Because US infrastructure is falling apart. Medical debt and student loans are soaring out of control. Rents are skyrocketing. I could go on, if you like. There's a lot of really important domestic priorities that are getting ignored so that the US can maintain hegemony in every corner of the globe.