then why is the american military the largest expenditure by the US government?
Its not and the fact you couldnt even do basic research to prevent parroting an obviously incorrect fact is shocking. Like I said before, your analysis is vibes based not reality based.
the department of defence spending is the single largest catagory within discretionary spending. 842 billion in 2024 alone. easily verifiable if you cared enough to even type it into google. or use the wayback machine for pre trump admin white washing of .gov websites if you like it raw. dont even attempt to lump in social security and medicaid together along with several other discretionary spending categories like a talking head at fox news would to make your “point”, thats misinformation, or straight up confusion on your part.
this isnt a vibe, its a fact. so, with all do respect, perhaps practice what you preach, and do your research.
Of course im aware its the largest item its category once you filter spending into categories that specifically remove welfare and debt spending. Discretionary spending specifically is a small part of government expenditure so trying to pass the top item off as the largest expenditure by the government is misleading.
Skimming through the rest of your comment I can see i was right to ignore it since pretty much everything is wrong. Military industrial complex doesnt exist, majority of rich nations have debt, US has “free” healthcare its just worse than non existent, plenty of countries have “large” homeless populations and lastly yes a lot of countries have billionaires.
None of this is a capitalism problem. Its all the fault of poor governance. Given the track record of american leadership they would be in a far worse spot if they were at the mercy of their government for everything. Right now we see their government actively trying to destroy them.
unlike you, i dont “skim” counter arguments, i prefer to read and understand where they went wrong, or right. lets dive in to your mind a bit, shall we?
“Of course I’m aware it’s the largest item in its category once you filter spending into categories that specifically remove welfare and debt spending.”
Yeah, that’s kind of the point. You’re minimizing military spending by slicing up the budget categories until the elephant in the room fits in a closet. Within discretionary spending—the part Congress actually debates every year—military spending is the single biggest slice by far. In FY2024, the U.S. military budget was $842 billion, dwarfing most other departments. Acting like that’s a meaningless stat is disingenuous.
“Discretionary spending specifically is a small part of government expenditure…”
Only because mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are locked in. But when it comes to spending decisions our elected officials actively control, defense gets the lion’s share. So yeah, it’s still relevant.
“Military industrial complex doesn’t exist.”
Come on. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s literal U.S. presidential history. Eisenhower coined the term in 1961 warning about the influence of the defense industry on public policy. Since then, the intertwining of defense contractors, government funding, and foreign policy has been extensively documented. Pretending it’s fake is like saying lobbying doesn’t exist.
“Majority of rich nations have debt.”
Sure. But the existence of debt doesn’t make all spending equal. A lot of those nations invest more proportionally in healthcare, infrastructure, and education. The U.S., meanwhile, throws nearly half of its discretionary budget at the Pentagon, while millions can’t afford basic meds. So debt isn’t the problem—how you spend is.
“US has ‘free’ healthcare it’s just worse than non-existent.”
This is just flat-out wrong. The U.S. doesn’t have free healthcare. Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA serve limited populations. Everyone else deals with high premiums, co-pays, and surprise bills. It’s literally the most expensive healthcare system in the world and still leaves millions under- or uninsured. So, no—it’s not “free,” and it’s not “worse than non-existent.” It’s just expensive and dysfunctional.
“Plenty of countries have ‘large’ homeless populations.”
That’s not the flex you think it is. The U.S. has one of the highest homelessness rates in the developed world, especially when measured against GDP per capita and housing stock. Comparing yourself to failing models doesn’t excuse your own failure.
“None of this is a capitalism problem. It’s all the fault of poor governance.”
Okay, but governance is shaped by the economic system. Capitalism, unregulated or poorly regulated, gives outsized power to corporations and billionaires who influence policy to protect their interests. That’s how you end up with tax loopholes, underfunded social programs, and endless defense budgets. Governance doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s downstream of capitalism in practice. the system itself is easily corruptable, making it extremely flawed.
“They’d be in a far worse spot if they were at the mercy of their government for everything.”
You’re already at the mercy of someone, either corporations or government. One is profit-driven, the other at least theoretically answerable to voters, or at least “was”. Acting like total privatization leads to freedom is just libertarian fanfic. and utterly insane.
TL; because i know you DR: You’re trying to minimize systemic issues by pretending they’re just bad luck or bad governance. But when you zoom out, they’re structural, tied to how capitalism works in the U.S. and who holds the power. Stop gaslighting people with bootstraps logic, its fox news drivel, and its not respected here.
read more, you obviously need to. if anyone here is posting a “vibes based” response, its you dude. i get you have a hard on for the “free market” but if you knew one thing about economics you’d know that the US stock market is the most corrupt one on earth, literally redesigned over the decades to filter money and shares from suckers to big fish, who in turn use it as leverage against the governments of the world. So they can further their agendas of power, control, and wealth aquisition. Trump, the “president”, was literally purchased and placed in his seat by a man who leveraged his overpriced, artificially inflated “hype” stock as collateral to buy a social media platform so he could spread the same rhetoric and misinformation you are currently spreading. that is a feature of capitalism, along with recessions that increase in frequency decade after decade. all so they can reap the new crops of small businesses and assets of the people for a song.
if you have any questions or statements. Im happy to educate any readers of these comments, correctly, with my responses.
Its not and the fact you couldnt even do basic research to prevent parroting an obviously incorrect fact is shocking. Like I said before, your analysis is vibes based not reality based.
the department of defence spending is the single largest catagory within discretionary spending. 842 billion in 2024 alone. easily verifiable if you cared enough to even type it into google. or use the wayback machine for pre trump admin white washing of .gov websites if you like it raw. dont even attempt to lump in social security and medicaid together along with several other discretionary spending categories like a talking head at fox news would to make your “point”, thats misinformation, or straight up confusion on your part.
this isnt a vibe, its a fact. so, with all do respect, perhaps practice what you preach, and do your research.
Of course im aware its the largest item its category once you filter spending into categories that specifically remove welfare and debt spending. Discretionary spending specifically is a small part of government expenditure so trying to pass the top item off as the largest expenditure by the government is misleading.
Skimming through the rest of your comment I can see i was right to ignore it since pretty much everything is wrong. Military industrial complex doesnt exist, majority of rich nations have debt, US has “free” healthcare its just worse than non existent, plenty of countries have “large” homeless populations and lastly yes a lot of countries have billionaires.
None of this is a capitalism problem. Its all the fault of poor governance. Given the track record of american leadership they would be in a far worse spot if they were at the mercy of their government for everything. Right now we see their government actively trying to destroy them.
unlike you, i dont “skim” counter arguments, i prefer to read and understand where they went wrong, or right. lets dive in to your mind a bit, shall we?
“Of course I’m aware it’s the largest item in its category once you filter spending into categories that specifically remove welfare and debt spending.”
Yeah, that’s kind of the point. You’re minimizing military spending by slicing up the budget categories until the elephant in the room fits in a closet. Within discretionary spending—the part Congress actually debates every year—military spending is the single biggest slice by far. In FY2024, the U.S. military budget was $842 billion, dwarfing most other departments. Acting like that’s a meaningless stat is disingenuous.
Only because mandatory programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are locked in. But when it comes to spending decisions our elected officials actively control, defense gets the lion’s share. So yeah, it’s still relevant.
Come on. This isn’t a conspiracy theory, it’s literal U.S. presidential history. Eisenhower coined the term in 1961 warning about the influence of the defense industry on public policy. Since then, the intertwining of defense contractors, government funding, and foreign policy has been extensively documented. Pretending it’s fake is like saying lobbying doesn’t exist.
Sure. But the existence of debt doesn’t make all spending equal. A lot of those nations invest more proportionally in healthcare, infrastructure, and education. The U.S., meanwhile, throws nearly half of its discretionary budget at the Pentagon, while millions can’t afford basic meds. So debt isn’t the problem—how you spend is.
This is just flat-out wrong. The U.S. doesn’t have free healthcare. Medicare, Medicaid, and the VA serve limited populations. Everyone else deals with high premiums, co-pays, and surprise bills. It’s literally the most expensive healthcare system in the world and still leaves millions under- or uninsured. So, no—it’s not “free,” and it’s not “worse than non-existent.” It’s just expensive and dysfunctional.
That’s not the flex you think it is. The U.S. has one of the highest homelessness rates in the developed world, especially when measured against GDP per capita and housing stock. Comparing yourself to failing models doesn’t excuse your own failure.
“None of this is a capitalism problem. It’s all the fault of poor governance.”
You’re already at the mercy of someone, either corporations or government. One is profit-driven, the other at least theoretically answerable to voters, or at least “was”. Acting like total privatization leads to freedom is just libertarian fanfic. and utterly insane.
TL; because i know you DR: You’re trying to minimize systemic issues by pretending they’re just bad luck or bad governance. But when you zoom out, they’re structural, tied to how capitalism works in the U.S. and who holds the power. Stop gaslighting people with bootstraps logic, its fox news drivel, and its not respected here.
read more, you obviously need to. if anyone here is posting a “vibes based” response, its you dude. i get you have a hard on for the “free market” but if you knew one thing about economics you’d know that the US stock market is the most corrupt one on earth, literally redesigned over the decades to filter money and shares from suckers to big fish, who in turn use it as leverage against the governments of the world. So they can further their agendas of power, control, and wealth aquisition. Trump, the “president”, was literally purchased and placed in his seat by a man who leveraged his overpriced, artificially inflated “hype” stock as collateral to buy a social media platform so he could spread the same rhetoric and misinformation you are currently spreading. that is a feature of capitalism, along with recessions that increase in frequency decade after decade. all so they can reap the new crops of small businesses and assets of the people for a song.
if you have any questions or statements. Im happy to educate any readers of these comments, correctly, with my responses.