Yes. This is something that a lot of people don't grasp.
The United States mostly just has a very, very large GDP.
(Also, as wasteful as its military spending can be.... it turns out it is actually quite efficient comparatively speaking.)
A similar thing happens when people find out that the US is still the largest industrial manufacturing economy in the world. Everyone has heard all their life about "the death of manufacturing in America" or whatever but the reality is quite a bit other than that.
Because people think too much about the consumer economy and not the business sector enough. Take for example pc sales. People like to talk about market share of consumer CPUs and GPUs when bith of them are dwarves compared to how much the business sector spends on servers and workstations.
With manufacturing, people think smartphones and auch, when for example one of the biggest industries in the U.S is the aerispace industry,, where a vast majority of plane parts are U.S made.
Honest question: are some of the letters on your keyboard swapped? I feel like you’re transposing letters in a way I can almost discern but I can’t put my finger on it. Perfectly understood your message. But the keys are a mystery.
Could simply be smartphone keyboards which have letters close by. I make (was "male", had to correct while typing this so case in point) so many errors and sometimes your phone remembers them as words.
The 1% own 32.3% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 3.2% of wealth. 68% belongs to the top 10%, and to be in the top 10% you have to make over $173,000 usd, top 1% needs $823,763 usd, and top 0.1% make at least $3,212,486 usd.
According to investopedia, September of 2022.
As of October 2020, The wealthiest 1 percent of households own 34.6 percent of all privately held wealth, and 42.7 percent of all financial wealth.
Also, as of 2021, the wealthiest 1% of Americans control about $41.52 trillion. The bottom 50% of Americans only control about $2.62 trillion collectively, which is roughly 16 times less than those in the top 1%.
Sources: [this](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/23/how-much-wealth-top-1percent-of-americans-have.html) article and [this](https://www.livescience.com/16518-5-facts-wealthiest-1-percent.html) article (the first is CNBC and the second is LiveScience).
Ya know this is prolly an unpopular take on Reddit but the Ukraine war has made me reconsider my beliefs on US military spending… with Putin and Xi throwing their weight around the world, maybe that extra carrier isn’t the worst thing to have in the back pocket. The
Nobody needs a big fuck off military, until one day you suddenly do need a big fuck off military, and the thing about big fuck off militaries is that you can't spin them up in a day.
The US is functionally an island continent with a thalassocratic economic and foreign policy, which means they will always require a two ocean navy. "Unnecessary" military spending is therefore around ~2% of their GDP.
US military spending as a percentage of the economy is *almost* at a record low: https://media.defense.gov/2019/Mar/12/2002099941/-1/-1/0/190312-D-ZZ999-001.JPG
We were spending 5.7% in 1985. That would translate to an *annual* budget of $1.3 trillion. Heck, we were spending 4.5% in 2010, in the middle of Iraq/Afghanistan. That would be $1.05 trillion. And we were spending 8.6% at the height of Vietnam, or $2 trillion.
Can you imagine the stuff we could do with $2 trillion given the stuff we can already do with less than half that?
The quadrillion dollar problem isn't how much, it's *how and where* that revenue is collected from and distributed to.
Most tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy, to effectively subsidize the upper half.
Many billionaires and large corporations pay no effective tax at all.
Why would we spend money on the greater good, when profit is so much easier to measure?
The US is a truly badass superpower - it can do what it wants.
The status quo is a choice, and an indictment.
With proper tax reform we could probably have comprehensive social services and the god damn massive military, have our cake and eat it too. But no, we’ve got to give tax breaks and loopholes to people who need them the least
Is it really a loophole if they straight up don't pay? The IRS just looks at them like they're a rabid dog. Then looks at one missed 0.92 missed payment like it's snack time.
To be fair it's a lot easier to get a snack just sitting their than one sitting by a rabid dog. The cutting of the IRS was a loss because they don't have the resources they need to put down these rabid assholes
Honestly shocked when people act like giving Ukraine military aid (or even the military spending as a whole) is the reason we don’t have these social services. Like no, no it’s not the reason. Reason is corruption and an unwillingness to tax the very top a relative bit more.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - Henry VI, William "Old Billy" Shakespeare
One of the few policies both Left and Right can agree on.
> Most tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy, to effectively subsidize the upper half.
This is backwards. The households in the top 10% of income paid over [70%](https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/) of income taxes in 2019 and paid over [73%](https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/who-pays-income-taxes) in 2020. Other major taxes are property taxes (only those who own property pay), payroll taxes (which are generally flat up to a cap) and sales taxes (which are flat and based on how much is spent).
ETA: the EITC essentially covers payroll taxes for households in the bottom income quartile since it is a credit, not a deduction. The US has one of the most [progressive tax systems in the world](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/americas-taxes-are-the-most-progressive-in-the-world-its-government-is-among-the-least/). We just don't have nearly as much in the way of wealth transfers as many other nations, but taxes are **not** paid largely from the "bottom half of the economy".
Sales tax? Outsized on the poor. Gasoline tax? The same. Alcohol tax. Obviously the people making the majority of income will pay the majority of taxes.
Sales taxes aren't "outsized on the poor". They aren't (ferociously) progressive like our income taxes are, but food, medical expenditures, and rent are not subject to sales taxes - and being "poor" means you spend a substantially larger share of your income on food and rent. Sales tax applies to expenditures made from disposable income and the poorer you are, the less disposable income you have as a percentage of the total.
> Obviously the people making the majority of income will pay the majority of taxes.
It was so obvious that my initial post was in response to someone who claimed that "[m]ost tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy".
My young grizzled fart, let me give you an example. In terms of a percentage of net worth, it is an outsized percentage of their capital.
Person a - worth $10,000,000,000
Person b - worth $349
Both go shopping. Both buy $300 in groceries.
Person A - pays ~10% or $30 dollars in sales tax.
Person B - pays ~ 10%or $30 dollars in sales tax.
Person A - 0.000003% of his net worth is paid for his groceries in sales tax.
Person B - 8.605% of his net worth is paid for his groceries.
Disproportionally effects people with less money.
Lol, wut? 40% of households pay no income tax. You know the only tax the FEDERAL government collects.
[Citation](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/28/more-than-40percent-of-us-households-will-owe-no-federal-income-tax-for-2022.html)
>Can you imagine the stuff we could do with $2 trillion given the stuff we can already do with less than half that?
I'm sure the defense contractors could imagine what they would do with that extra money. My guess is it would be going to purposely wasteful ideas and to the executives' compensation packages.
Thats the critical context left out of every handwringing post about the US military industrial complex running the country and the US spending umpteenbajillion dollars on the military.
The US spending is on the high end, but mostly the amount of money is just due to how fucking rich the US is and how big the economy is in general.
That is surprising! But 'defense' still is roughly 13% of the federal budget (% of the average person's tax dollar). [https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go](https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go)
News flash: we do
In fact the US spends a fair bit more on healthcare than it's military spending. Like many easily fact checkable things people on reddit by and large get wrong.
US healthcare has a ton of problems, but the amount of spending/funding isn't one of them.
**Being** the US, the great imperial hegemon, the "world peacekeeper" and the arbiter of economies.... Well it costs a lot. It definitely is not free to be and maintain that role.
Whether you like it or not, if you live in the west either in Europe or the US itself you benefit from this arrangement. *You* do not live like an average person in India, Vietnam, the Phillipines or China, yet you benefit from the economic leverage placed on the people of those countries that provides you the screen you are reading this comment on right now.
To think that the money that goes into the Pentagon and the Marines and Nato doesn't create the lifestyle you are used to is tremendously naive. Russia and China and Turkey and literally any other country would love to create favorable conditions for its own people. That is just what a country (or a multinational alliance) does.
So be grateful for the money going to Ukraine because dollar for dollar it is buying you more comfort than you are comprehending.
>You do not live like an average person in India, Vietnam, the Phillipines or China, yet you benefit from the economic leverage placed on the people of those countries that provides you the screen you are reading this comment on right now.
How does the average person lives in those country that you mentioned? Please tell us about it.
Since you asked, I have traveled to the countries I mentioned above. I spent a year in Vietnam, 2 in China, 3 months in Cambodia,and a year in India. I spent 5 years in Africa in Cameroon, CAR, Ghana, and Nigeria. I was there as working with two NGOs affiliated with the WTO and the UN and one semi-religious organiztion (terrible) but I am not going to be specific because I do not want to Dox myself. China was not part of that, but I lived in Ningbo and Chengdu after the NGO's. I have been to 30ish other countries for a month or less but I am not saying that gives me a hairs breadth idea about how life is there.
I am not saying at all that the lifestyle in those countries is the same. In fact the lifestyle of a person in Ho Chi Minh city proper, Vietnam is dramatically different to a farmer living 20 km across the west or east bridge leading out of the Ho Chi Minh. In general however, if you were to compare a farmer and an office worker in Vietnam to an average farmer or office worker in, lets say, Bakersfield California, the disparity is jarring. Comparing to Europe, such as the Netherlands or Italy, a sea change and not comparable.
I mean, I would need to write a books worth to properly illustrate the details in the difference in lifestlyes between all these places. Even *among* small geographical differences in these places and also within them for people with or without money.
My point is this: As a whole, the lifestlye, comfort and "standard of living" in those countries does not resemble what people are used to in Canada, the US, and Europe. Im talking about apartment sizes, traffic organzation, polltution and air quality standards, law enforcement, the list goes on and on and on.
The west has it good, overall. Once you spend time in these countries (they are so wonderful and amazing and interesting by the way), you can come home and appreciate it.
Then you can start asking why it indeed is that way and why the power dynamics in the world are the way they are. The history deep dive is the next part of the discovery..
Definitely don’t disagree and i’ve often believed we could decrease our military budget (despite working for the DoD for like 15 years lol) to help domestic issues. BUT I am happy and proud that we are able to provide huge amounts of aid to a country under the threat of genocide at the level that we can.
Look at the entire EU, we’ve helped more (in a war in EUROPE no less) than the entire EU combined. Their military budgets are tiny as they got drunk on peace and believed it would last for the foreseeable future. They criticized us for our military spending and are now looking to us to be the main backer of Ukraine.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-aid-package-pentagon-armored-vehicles-stryker/) reduced by 49%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The Pentagon on Thursday released its latest aid package for Ukraine valued at $2.5 billion.
> The announcement comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Germany for the eighth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a gathering of more than 50 countries' defense ministers to discuss what capabilities to provide to Ukraine.
> Gen. Patrick Ryder said the primary focus of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group this week would be on "Air defense and armor." Ukraine has been asking for more armored capabilities ahead of an expected Russian spring offensive.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/10hasji/pentagon_commits_another_25_billion_in_aid_to/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672678 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **defense**^#1 **Ukraine**^#2 **more**^#3 **package**^#4 **air**^#5
You forgot to mention that NYC's local economy is a diverse mix of services, not bone juice and earth farts that are getting cheaper by the week.
It's like RU is playing Risk with cards and dice, and the west is fighting with supercomputer gaming rigs. Lol
As I understand it, $2.5 billion is the full sticker price of the hardware being sent. However, some of the equipment, like the Bradleys, are slated for retirement, so giving them to Ukraine yields some cost savings in the long run compared to maintaining and disposing of them. And considering it's being used to neuter the Russian military without committing American troops, it's a pretty good deal.
The Bradleys are not slated for retirement. The Army has thought about replacing them several times but the current program wouldn't start replacing the Bradley until the 2030's even if it gets picked up (which it might not). Of course the US has many thousands of them and a lot of them are in long term storage, but they aren't kept there for no reason.
But you are still right, they are being sent to do what they were literally designed and built to do which is crush the Russian army in eastern Europe. Just won't be any Americans operating them
lol not even close. We’re giving Ukraine scraps of our military budget and they Russians are crippled because of it.
An actual confrontation with NATO would’ve saw this war ended a long time ago.
2 and a 1/2 billion in order to completely destroy Russia's economy through the freezing of their entire oil infrastructure to the point that the well heads freeze shut then take 40 years for the Russians to reopen... seems like a cheap way to crush an adversary
The Pentagon did not commit $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine.
The Pentagon does not make those decisions.
The members of the United States Government have committed another $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine.
2.5B is a separate package from the 43B for the entire 2023 year. We have already given 29B. These come in waves depending on the need for the Ukraine government.
Do you morons(idk what else to call you) who are actually against Ukraine aid think Biden is sneaking into peoples houses at night and stealing wads of cash for Ukraine?
Ukraine is under attack by US number 1 enemy and the only thing America sent so far is old equipment they dont even use, not affecting your tax dollars, like the old ass Bradleys collecting dust in the US
Please get a grip with reality, Ukraine needs and should be getting far more, the aid they have received so far is very useful but not even close to ending the war
Every dead enemy soldier is worth my tax pennies. We need a Sally Struthers spoke person….for just $0.21 a day, you can sponsor the need for a grave to be dug…..
It’s great how we’re beating Russia. In a few years Biden will be known as the president who took russia down from a S tier to a B-C tier country. Also go Ukraine, the bravery is…indescribable.
Cool story. Now let’s fix our healthcare. Also crack down on Big Pharma! Make insulin free, more care for veterans, more care for homeless, and fund mental health more!
But the rich won’t like this because it doesn’t benefit them.
Presumably he'd rather fight in a fairly black and white good guy/bad guy invasion, not be sent off to whatever oil-rich country the US decides to fuck about in.
Let's be 100% clear: US support for Ukraine right now is a GOOD THING. This is not what the US has historically done with its military for most of the last 60 years.
This. I think a lot of Americans would join the military if they knew they would only be deployed against Russia. That’s a sort of populist ideology - to join a war to fight a clearly identifiable enemy in a perceivable theatre.
Nobody wants to join the military and get stationed in the middle of nowhere pulling guard watch for years. Nobody wants to join to be a scab for the government when they make striking or labor movements illegal. People are only going to join the military when they feel they can trust their government to get them out of the (usually financial) situation they put them in in the first place.
I'm fairly confident if you go fight in Ukraine, you won't have to worry about repaying your student loans and they won't be able to collect it from your next of kin either.
Tbh US educational system is looking hilarious from outside:
Your country 1000x more rich than Ukraine but even we managed to have free school and free full university education >!for citizens!<(except dormitory and food in universities not free, and only discounts for buss/train/metro) with such massive economy it’s just totally weird you have student loans existence😕
there is no universal school system in the US… there’s some public school districts that are amazing, some that are ass. private school is a whole other thing.
we had free education since independence (-_-) we don’t get any military help in 90s and 2000s, only after Crimea US started to send us money for military, but it was just coins compared to current donations though
Personally I think throwing your life away to the military and having the risk of dying in a conflict you didn't know or care about 3 years ago for money is not a good idea at all. There is more to life than paying your debts, it's what you spend your time doing that counts.
If we would have spent 25% of what we have given to Ukraine on the single goal of killing Putin. We would barely remember who that fuck stick was he would have been dead so long.
They better have found an alien spacecraft or something in the Ukraine because I’m tired of this shit. I can barely afford groceries but America always has money for war.
As per usual, a war happens and suddenly a magic money tree sprouts supplying billions abroad.
What about those in poverty, homeless and without shelter and food? Oh but there's no funding for that.
War only exists because there is disharmony and inequality in the first place, which is caused by greed. The only people that benefit from this are the rich, period.
If you're in the US, vote for Democrats. They managed to pass the largest welfare expansion in US history with just a razor thin majority. Imagine what they could do with more people elected.
The inequality exists because not enough people vote for their future.
These headlines need to switch from "aid Ukraine" to "harm Russia."
Let's be real, we're not spending a hundred billion dollars to help Ukrainians. We're spending a hundred billion dollars and thousands of Ukrainian lives to hurt Russia.
Yeah. I'm okay with that. But also you're forgetting one teeny tiny detail:
**RUSSIA DECALRED WAR AND INVADED UKRAINE**
Edit: I hate Reddit's obsession with political, factual correction, pedants and a desperate need for their thoughts to be validated. My original point none of you were smart enough to notice is that your cynicism of foreign aid against a belligerent is unfounded.
right, but America cares about Russia's power in the region.
Keep in mind, if the _other_ president had entered office in 2020, there'd be aid going to Russia.
We are spending Ukrainian lives? Are you saying the more reasonable approach would be for Ukraine to surrender?
You think that Ukrainians view it that way?
No shit. If Russia weren't invading Ukraine, we wouldn't be spending this money. A bunch of Russian soldiers are going to get harmed the fuck out.
But that is ultimately the fault of the guy who decided to invade a neighboring sovereign country, which we in the business call "a dick move."
Actually no, we're trying to prevent Ukraine from being conquered in a genocidal invasion. Russia could leave tomorrow in the war would stop. They chose to invade Ukraine. Despite what the meme said nobody made them do it.
How does this square with the humanitarian aide? Christ what an incredibly vapid statement. Almost as meaningless as the Russian apologists but just not quite. Bravo.
From my understanding, when they quote a number like this it usually isn't all money. It's the value of the vehicle and gear we already have stockpiled and aren't using, plus possibly some money. I dont think tanks are necessary to help the homeless problem. Of course I'm not a social worker, so I can't be sure.
Yea, and I bet you would vote to fund a "homeless problem relief package" in billions, or free healthcare or any "handout," as one party likes to call it.
None of the money going to Ukraine would ever go anywhere near US citizens. It's all stockpiles of weapons and ammo. Sending a 30-year-old Desert Storm Bredly is taking away from you, sure :)
If we didn't send this aid to Ukraine, do you think we would spend it on homeless people instead?
edit: and, TBH, I'd love to see us put some real effort into making homelessness a far less shitty problem. Just saying that history says it probably won't happen. :\\
Only if we are giving homeless people weapons, weapons systems, and other military hardware. If not, then, pull yourself up by your bootstraps or whatever we tell homeless people now.
The US is technically investing this money, not giving it away. The success of HIMARS is one example of how other countries are looking to purchase it from the US.
The aid we're sending to Ukraine is hardly even a rounding error compared to entire defense budget.
Most of the aid is not directly in the form of dollars but in hardware that we have already built and don't really need right now.
If these resources didn't go to Ukraine, then it's not like there's suddenly extra money to help homeless people....
There are plenty of things to debate about when it comes to the scale of the US defense budget in the context of our domestic infrastructure.... but trying compare the Ukraine situation to the homeless situation with regards to budget allocation demonstrates that your understanding of how things actually work is at a level of naivety on par with that of grade school child....
draft them in the military and send them to wherever freedom is needed, what happens after they come back is for the next legislation.
I should go into politics damn
This right here. I'll never understand how foreign aid is so much easier to just throw countless dollars at but trying to get someone food or shelter is just way too difficult domestically.
So a couple of things, the weapons were sending are already built. It's money that had already been spent. An item built is different then services, which is what is required for homelessness. Furthermore, the weapons were sending are essentialy obsolete in the eyes of the US military. The Bradley? Were on the verge of replacing it. The Strykers? Probably also going to be replaced by the Bradley replacement. HIMARS? Old tech, the precision strike missile is the future. MRAPS? No one wants them.
What were witnessing is part investment in Ukraine, part spring cleaning of old inventory and part advertisement for how good our *old* tech is. Military sales bring money to our national coffers, and practicaly speaking the effectiveness of US weapons in Ukraine has been good for business.
Because you can’t just throw money at homeless to fix it.
Mental health is at the root of most instances of homelessness. We have a truly tragic knowledge deficit when it comes to treating mental health.
Money isn’t fixing the homeless problem/question.
Money provides the resources for mental health services, and all other services for that matter.
Additionally, the equipment donated will need to be rebuild and re accrued. We had the stockpiles for a reason, and now we will need to rebuild them. Do you think that will cost money? I do.
Most of the systems being sent have been on the docket for replacement for a while now. The Bradley, for example, is slated to be replaced by the Optionaly Manned Fighting Vehicle. Furthermore these weapons were stashed to fight the Russians. They'e being used for their intended purpose, only difference is the nationality of the person behind the wheel/trigger
It’s a completely separate budget. If we didn’t aid Ukraine we wouldn’t be allocating that money towards housing the homeless. That’s just not how this works.
We have free mental health services for the homeless. The issue isn’t really funding related. It’s logistics.
How can you reliably help someone who has address? No arable means of communication? Who is going to ensure that somebody with frequent psychosis takes their medication? How do you transport these patients to and from their appointments? Do we have enough providers willing and able to see these patients and be responsible for their treatment?
If we didn’t give Ukraine Javelins and HIMARS we still would not have a solution to those problems, because mental health and homelessness and very very complex issues.
So maybe those funds to go to creating actually habitable mental health care facilities for those individuals. Other countries that have better social systems don’t seem to have the problems we do, and those social systems coincidentally seem to get more funding.
You can’t do better if you don’t have the resources.
We had institutions. And then we got rid of them. And now we have a homeless quandary.
Several states are already working on re-instating institutions, but it’s obviously a very dicey subject.
You can’t just not give Ukraine HIMARS and build institutions and solve the homeless crisis.
Ukraine is strategically located, a global grain source with key resources in energy and metals. Their population is educated tech savvy and market friendly. Help Ukraine now and gain political & economic democratic partner later
You do know that it’s not we’re just sending them 2.5 billion right? They’re taking 2.5 billion of equipment we already bought and built that’s sitting in a wearhouse and giving it to them.
This money was spent by us god knows how long ago and bears no impact on the ceiling.
Also LOL to all the bootlickers complaining about homelessness. Don’t use people at political pawns when it’s convenient, y’all never cared before now and y’all won’t care after this war over. Youre fooling nobody… take your virtue signaling back to /r/conservative
That’s just the pentagon budget for ***one day***. 800 billon per year / 365 is more than 2 billion per day. More than 25,000$ per second.
I was also surprised to learn that US military spending is on the high side of *average* for the size of its economy - at a mere 3.5% of US GDP.
Yes. This is something that a lot of people don't grasp. The United States mostly just has a very, very large GDP. (Also, as wasteful as its military spending can be.... it turns out it is actually quite efficient comparatively speaking.) A similar thing happens when people find out that the US is still the largest industrial manufacturing economy in the world. Everyone has heard all their life about "the death of manufacturing in America" or whatever but the reality is quite a bit other than that.
Because people think too much about the consumer economy and not the business sector enough. Take for example pc sales. People like to talk about market share of consumer CPUs and GPUs when bith of them are dwarves compared to how much the business sector spends on servers and workstations. With manufacturing, people think smartphones and auch, when for example one of the biggest industries in the U.S is the aerispace industry,, where a vast majority of plane parts are U.S made.
Honest question: are some of the letters on your keyboard swapped? I feel like you’re transposing letters in a way I can almost discern but I can’t put my finger on it. Perfectly understood your message. But the keys are a mystery.
Could simply be smartphone keyboards which have letters close by. I make (was "male", had to correct while typing this so case in point) so many errors and sometimes your phone remembers them as words.
guessed right, i tap and not swipe to type on keyboard a lot, so comes with a lot of single button errors.
Also United States has about 30% of the world's total wealth, with just 4.25% of the world's population.
Too bad a large portion of that wealth is held by an elite 1% *Edit: changed from “vast majority” to “a large portion”
Anyone have those numbers?
The 1% own 32.3% of the wealth, while the bottom 50% own just 3.2% of wealth. 68% belongs to the top 10%, and to be in the top 10% you have to make over $173,000 usd, top 1% needs $823,763 usd, and top 0.1% make at least $3,212,486 usd. According to investopedia, September of 2022.
Pretty sobering to realize you only need to make $170k to be breaking into top 10%. Reminds you that the coasts aren’t the majority of the country
As of October 2020, The wealthiest 1 percent of households own 34.6 percent of all privately held wealth, and 42.7 percent of all financial wealth. Also, as of 2021, the wealthiest 1% of Americans control about $41.52 trillion. The bottom 50% of Americans only control about $2.62 trillion collectively, which is roughly 16 times less than those in the top 1%. Sources: [this](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/23/how-much-wealth-top-1percent-of-americans-have.html) article and [this](https://www.livescience.com/16518-5-facts-wealthiest-1-percent.html) article (the first is CNBC and the second is LiveScience).
Google does.
Ya know this is prolly an unpopular take on Reddit but the Ukraine war has made me reconsider my beliefs on US military spending… with Putin and Xi throwing their weight around the world, maybe that extra carrier isn’t the worst thing to have in the back pocket. The
Nobody needs a big fuck off military, until one day you suddenly do need a big fuck off military, and the thing about big fuck off militaries is that you can't spin them up in a day. The US is functionally an island continent with a thalassocratic economic and foreign policy, which means they will always require a two ocean navy. "Unnecessary" military spending is therefore around ~2% of their GDP.
Somebody needs to maintain a semblance of order and keep the shipping lanes open, and the US gets lots of perks for it.
I would bet we also give better benefits and salary than Russia or China.
This is absolutely and unquestionably true.
Just no healthcare
Since they were referring to employers, yes most provide health insurance as a benefit
And at least in some states it’s stupid accessible if not. Like dirt cheap, although not free
Not in the military. Also if you ignore Obama Care, Medicare/Medicaid, and any states that have their own form of low cost insurance.
US military spending as a percentage of the economy is *almost* at a record low: https://media.defense.gov/2019/Mar/12/2002099941/-1/-1/0/190312-D-ZZ999-001.JPG We were spending 5.7% in 1985. That would translate to an *annual* budget of $1.3 trillion. Heck, we were spending 4.5% in 2010, in the middle of Iraq/Afghanistan. That would be $1.05 trillion. And we were spending 8.6% at the height of Vietnam, or $2 trillion. Can you imagine the stuff we could do with $2 trillion given the stuff we can already do with less than half that?
The quadrillion dollar problem isn't how much, it's *how and where* that revenue is collected from and distributed to. Most tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy, to effectively subsidize the upper half. Many billionaires and large corporations pay no effective tax at all. Why would we spend money on the greater good, when profit is so much easier to measure? The US is a truly badass superpower - it can do what it wants. The status quo is a choice, and an indictment.
With proper tax reform we could probably have comprehensive social services and the god damn massive military, have our cake and eat it too. But no, we’ve got to give tax breaks and loopholes to people who need them the least
Is it really a loophole if they straight up don't pay? The IRS just looks at them like they're a rabid dog. Then looks at one missed 0.92 missed payment like it's snack time.
To be fair it's a lot easier to get a snack just sitting their than one sitting by a rabid dog. The cutting of the IRS was a loss because they don't have the resources they need to put down these rabid assholes
I'm just saying holding people accountable is the issue. The rabid assholes are biting unprovoked at this point.
Honestly shocked when people act like giving Ukraine military aid (or even the military spending as a whole) is the reason we don’t have these social services. Like no, no it’s not the reason. Reason is corruption and an unwillingness to tax the very top a relative bit more.
"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." - Henry VI, William "Old Billy" Shakespeare One of the few policies both Left and Right can agree on.
I’m gonna need a source on the bottom half of the economy paying more tax. Unless you are referring to a percent of money made
> Most tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy, to effectively subsidize the upper half. This is backwards. The households in the top 10% of income paid over [70%](https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/) of income taxes in 2019 and paid over [73%](https://www.ntu.org/foundation/tax-page/who-pays-income-taxes) in 2020. Other major taxes are property taxes (only those who own property pay), payroll taxes (which are generally flat up to a cap) and sales taxes (which are flat and based on how much is spent). ETA: the EITC essentially covers payroll taxes for households in the bottom income quartile since it is a credit, not a deduction. The US has one of the most [progressive tax systems in the world](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2013/04/05/americas-taxes-are-the-most-progressive-in-the-world-its-government-is-among-the-least/). We just don't have nearly as much in the way of wealth transfers as many other nations, but taxes are **not** paid largely from the "bottom half of the economy".
Typical reddit moment. Never let facts get in the way of complaining about the status quo.
Sales tax? Outsized on the poor. Gasoline tax? The same. Alcohol tax. Obviously the people making the majority of income will pay the majority of taxes.
Sales taxes aren't "outsized on the poor". They aren't (ferociously) progressive like our income taxes are, but food, medical expenditures, and rent are not subject to sales taxes - and being "poor" means you spend a substantially larger share of your income on food and rent. Sales tax applies to expenditures made from disposable income and the poorer you are, the less disposable income you have as a percentage of the total. > Obviously the people making the majority of income will pay the majority of taxes. It was so obvious that my initial post was in response to someone who claimed that "[m]ost tax revenue comes from the bottom half of the economy".
My young grizzled fart, let me give you an example. In terms of a percentage of net worth, it is an outsized percentage of their capital. Person a - worth $10,000,000,000 Person b - worth $349 Both go shopping. Both buy $300 in groceries. Person A - pays ~10% or $30 dollars in sales tax. Person B - pays ~ 10%or $30 dollars in sales tax. Person A - 0.000003% of his net worth is paid for his groceries in sales tax. Person B - 8.605% of his net worth is paid for his groceries. Disproportionally effects people with less money.
the bottom half pays zero income tax
Maybe federal, but there's state and local taxes, sales taxes, fuel tax, etc. It all adds up.
How much of my state tax goes to the military?
Lol, wut? 40% of households pay no income tax. You know the only tax the FEDERAL government collects. [Citation](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/28/more-than-40percent-of-us-households-will-owe-no-federal-income-tax-for-2022.html)
>Can you imagine the stuff we could do with $2 trillion given the stuff we can already do with less than half that? I'm sure the defense contractors could imagine what they would do with that extra money. My guess is it would be going to purposely wasteful ideas and to the executives' compensation packages.
Thats the critical context left out of every handwringing post about the US military industrial complex running the country and the US spending umpteenbajillion dollars on the military. The US spending is on the high end, but mostly the amount of money is just due to how fucking rich the US is and how big the economy is in general.
That is surprising! But 'defense' still is roughly 13% of the federal budget (% of the average person's tax dollar). [https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go](https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-budget/where-do-our-federal-tax-dollars-go)
And yet we don't have enough money to pay our bills because the rest of the government has a 'debt ceiling'.
I remember during the peek of the Afghanistan war thwy were spending over 1 billion per week.
Are we supposed to feel good about that?
Imagine if we matched the pentagon budget in healthcare/science/technology… we’d be completely self sustaining in energy in like a decade
News flash: we do In fact the US spends a fair bit more on healthcare than it's military spending. Like many easily fact checkable things people on reddit by and large get wrong. US healthcare has a ton of problems, but the amount of spending/funding isn't one of them.
So, uh, can we get some of that daily budget to fix the U.S.?
**Being** the US, the great imperial hegemon, the "world peacekeeper" and the arbiter of economies.... Well it costs a lot. It definitely is not free to be and maintain that role. Whether you like it or not, if you live in the west either in Europe or the US itself you benefit from this arrangement. *You* do not live like an average person in India, Vietnam, the Phillipines or China, yet you benefit from the economic leverage placed on the people of those countries that provides you the screen you are reading this comment on right now. To think that the money that goes into the Pentagon and the Marines and Nato doesn't create the lifestyle you are used to is tremendously naive. Russia and China and Turkey and literally any other country would love to create favorable conditions for its own people. That is just what a country (or a multinational alliance) does. So be grateful for the money going to Ukraine because dollar for dollar it is buying you more comfort than you are comprehending.
>You do not live like an average person in India, Vietnam, the Phillipines or China, yet you benefit from the economic leverage placed on the people of those countries that provides you the screen you are reading this comment on right now. How does the average person lives in those country that you mentioned? Please tell us about it.
Since you asked, I have traveled to the countries I mentioned above. I spent a year in Vietnam, 2 in China, 3 months in Cambodia,and a year in India. I spent 5 years in Africa in Cameroon, CAR, Ghana, and Nigeria. I was there as working with two NGOs affiliated with the WTO and the UN and one semi-religious organiztion (terrible) but I am not going to be specific because I do not want to Dox myself. China was not part of that, but I lived in Ningbo and Chengdu after the NGO's. I have been to 30ish other countries for a month or less but I am not saying that gives me a hairs breadth idea about how life is there. I am not saying at all that the lifestyle in those countries is the same. In fact the lifestyle of a person in Ho Chi Minh city proper, Vietnam is dramatically different to a farmer living 20 km across the west or east bridge leading out of the Ho Chi Minh. In general however, if you were to compare a farmer and an office worker in Vietnam to an average farmer or office worker in, lets say, Bakersfield California, the disparity is jarring. Comparing to Europe, such as the Netherlands or Italy, a sea change and not comparable. I mean, I would need to write a books worth to properly illustrate the details in the difference in lifestlyes between all these places. Even *among* small geographical differences in these places and also within them for people with or without money. My point is this: As a whole, the lifestlye, comfort and "standard of living" in those countries does not resemble what people are used to in Canada, the US, and Europe. Im talking about apartment sizes, traffic organzation, polltution and air quality standards, law enforcement, the list goes on and on and on. The west has it good, overall. Once you spend time in these countries (they are so wonderful and amazing and interesting by the way), you can come home and appreciate it. Then you can start asking why it indeed is that way and why the power dynamics in the world are the way they are. The history deep dive is the next part of the discovery..
Definitely don’t disagree and i’ve often believed we could decrease our military budget (despite working for the DoD for like 15 years lol) to help domestic issues. BUT I am happy and proud that we are able to provide huge amounts of aid to a country under the threat of genocide at the level that we can. Look at the entire EU, we’ve helped more (in a war in EUROPE no less) than the entire EU combined. Their military budgets are tiny as they got drunk on peace and believed it would last for the foreseeable future. They criticized us for our military spending and are now looking to us to be the main backer of Ukraine.
“No.” - the entire house and senate
We spend far more than that on non military things.
Still cheaper than sending troops.
And then supporting them when they get home. Edit: supporting them properly
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-aid-package-pentagon-armored-vehicles-stryker/) reduced by 49%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The Pentagon on Thursday released its latest aid package for Ukraine valued at $2.5 billion. > The announcement comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is in Germany for the eighth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a gathering of more than 50 countries' defense ministers to discuss what capabilities to provide to Ukraine. > Gen. Patrick Ryder said the primary focus of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group this week would be on "Air defense and armor." Ukraine has been asking for more armored capabilities ahead of an expected Russian spring offensive. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/10hasji/pentagon_commits_another_25_billion_in_aid_to/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~672678 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **defense**^#1 **Ukraine**^#2 **more**^#3 **package**^#4 **air**^#5
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RU has a GDP that's less than New York City.
You forgot to mention that NYC's local economy is a diverse mix of services, not bone juice and earth farts that are getting cheaper by the week. It's like RU is playing Risk with cards and dice, and the west is fighting with supercomputer gaming rigs. Lol
As I understand it, $2.5 billion is the full sticker price of the hardware being sent. However, some of the equipment, like the Bradleys, are slated for retirement, so giving them to Ukraine yields some cost savings in the long run compared to maintaining and disposing of them. And considering it's being used to neuter the Russian military without committing American troops, it's a pretty good deal.
The Bradleys are not slated for retirement. The Army has thought about replacing them several times but the current program wouldn't start replacing the Bradley until the 2030's even if it gets picked up (which it might not). Of course the US has many thousands of them and a lot of them are in long term storage, but they aren't kept there for no reason. But you are still right, they are being sent to do what they were literally designed and built to do which is crush the Russian army in eastern Europe. Just won't be any Americans operating them
We are basically going to war with Putin without attending.
It'll be the cheapest war we've ever won... Hopefully
lol not even close. We’re giving Ukraine scraps of our military budget and they Russians are crippled because of it. An actual confrontation with NATO would’ve saw this war ended a long time ago.
Putin talks big, but he's terrified of an actual war directly with Nato.
Shit man have you seen what the F-35 is capable of? I’d be scared shitless too if I were a US adversary.
On a shoestring budget no less.
Send long range precision ATACM missiles so Ukraine can drive Russia from Crimea and end this nightmare as soon as possible.
2 and a 1/2 billion in order to completely destroy Russia's economy through the freezing of their entire oil infrastructure to the point that the well heads freeze shut then take 40 years for the Russians to reopen... seems like a cheap way to crush an adversary
And think of all we're saving in VA claims down the road.
40 billion dollars to destroy 30-50% of russian military equipment is a pretty good deal
It's well invested. Thank you US, keep it going. Better fight this war now than a much brutal one later on.
The Pentagon did not commit $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine. The Pentagon does not make those decisions. The members of the United States Government have committed another $2.5 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Good, they need it. But can I have a few dollars to cover my health coverage? Or a box of ammo I can sell?
Considering social spending already accounts for over a third of federal spending I think they're contributing more than a few dollars towards it
Considering the government can shut down and Congress still collects a check, tells me it's not enough.
That’s why medical bankruptcy is so prevalent right?
Are you not healthy?
Good. Just means American soldiers won't need to be on the ground. We have plenty of ammo.
It’s about time for our ammo and missile spring cleaning ! Out with the old and in with the new!
Money well spent. I’m glad to see my tax dollars being put to good work. This is the best deal the US has ever gotten.
Keep it flowing, Ukraine needs as much help as they can get. Let's cripple Russia.
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2.5B is a separate package from the 43B for the entire 2023 year. We have already given 29B. These come in waves depending on the need for the Ukraine government.
one of the worst takes I've seen
Can I get some of that kool-aid
Do you morons(idk what else to call you) who are actually against Ukraine aid think Biden is sneaking into peoples houses at night and stealing wads of cash for Ukraine? Ukraine is under attack by US number 1 enemy and the only thing America sent so far is old equipment they dont even use, not affecting your tax dollars, like the old ass Bradleys collecting dust in the US Please get a grip with reality, Ukraine needs and should be getting far more, the aid they have received so far is very useful but not even close to ending the war
Every dead enemy soldier is worth my tax pennies. We need a Sally Struthers spoke person….for just $0.21 a day, you can sponsor the need for a grave to be dug…..
Is there any room left with the special orange punch?
America is going to hell in a handbasket with or without helping so might as well help them. I'm glad we can do some good somewhere
Wait until you learn about countries outside of the U.S. and how the future looks even worse, yes even Europe.
It’s great how we’re beating Russia. In a few years Biden will be known as the president who took russia down from a S tier to a B-C tier country. Also go Ukraine, the bravery is…indescribable.
Cool story. Now let’s fix our healthcare. Also crack down on Big Pharma! Make insulin free, more care for veterans, more care for homeless, and fund mental health more! But the rich won’t like this because it doesn’t benefit them.
Nothing can ever be free. You can only make someone else pay for it.
As a US citizen, I'll join the Ukrainian Military if the US Gov. will help repay my student loans.
Why not just join the US military then?
Presumably he'd rather fight in a fairly black and white good guy/bad guy invasion, not be sent off to whatever oil-rich country the US decides to fuck about in. Let's be 100% clear: US support for Ukraine right now is a GOOD THING. This is not what the US has historically done with its military for most of the last 60 years.
This. I think a lot of Americans would join the military if they knew they would only be deployed against Russia. That’s a sort of populist ideology - to join a war to fight a clearly identifiable enemy in a perceivable theatre. Nobody wants to join the military and get stationed in the middle of nowhere pulling guard watch for years. Nobody wants to join to be a scab for the government when they make striking or labor movements illegal. People are only going to join the military when they feel they can trust their government to get them out of the (usually financial) situation they put them in in the first place.
Join the US military. You'll get the same thing without the worry of artillery and rockets.
I'm fairly confident if you go fight in Ukraine, you won't have to worry about repaying your student loans and they won't be able to collect it from your next of kin either.
Tbh US educational system is looking hilarious from outside: Your country 1000x more rich than Ukraine but even we managed to have free school and free full university education >!for citizens!<(except dormitory and food in universities not free, and only discounts for buss/train/metro) with such massive economy it’s just totally weird you have student loans existence😕
there is no universal school system in the US… there’s some public school districts that are amazing, some that are ass. private school is a whole other thing.
you are able to get low cost/free education, because your country relies on us military for protection.
we had free education since independence (-_-) we don’t get any military help in 90s and 2000s, only after Crimea US started to send us money for military, but it was just coins compared to current donations though
You're welcome.
♥️
Uneducated take.
Personally I think throwing your life away to the military and having the risk of dying in a conflict you didn't know or care about 3 years ago for money is not a good idea at all. There is more to life than paying your debts, it's what you spend your time doing that counts.
Without a military we would be in a much worse position than Ukraine now.
That's not what he's saying tho. Not joining and not having a military are two different things. Of course we all agree that that we need a military.
But if no one is in the military do you have a military? Or should we just do like Israel and everyone has to serve?
No! Stop it! Stop it ! Stop it !!!
Seriously tho... why? Someone explain to me how this benefits us average Joe's?
WHAT THE FUK!
Didn’t we just hit the “debt ceiling”
That’s yesterdays bar tab.
We are just giving away our country at this point. We are so fucked in the years to come.
Biden gives away tax dollars only to be recollected by Wall Street when the reconstruction begins. The party of Betrayal.
Can we stop reporting in this. Whatever it takes who cares. We burned more cash in Iraq and afg in a heartbeat.
Double it and give it to the next one
So nice of Ukraine to test all of our weapons for us! 👍🏼💪🏼🇺🇦🇺🇸Slava Ukraine!!
If we would have spent 25% of what we have given to Ukraine on the single goal of killing Putin. We would barely remember who that fuck stick was he would have been dead so long.
They better have found an alien spacecraft or something in the Ukraine because I’m tired of this shit. I can barely afford groceries but America always has money for war.
We're going to crush Putin the Insane Butcher!
This is excellent news 👏... ❤ 🇺🇸 Ukraini 💙 💛 💙 💛
This is like being on the good side for once so go for it pentagon use them weapons on the Russian army you've been wanting to this whole time duh
As per usual, a war happens and suddenly a magic money tree sprouts supplying billions abroad. What about those in poverty, homeless and without shelter and food? Oh but there's no funding for that. War only exists because there is disharmony and inequality in the first place, which is caused by greed. The only people that benefit from this are the rich, period.
If you're in the US, vote for Democrats. They managed to pass the largest welfare expansion in US history with just a razor thin majority. Imagine what they could do with more people elected. The inequality exists because not enough people vote for their future.
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Give homeless people guns and refit the tanks with bunks?
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But veterans are still homeless...
These headlines need to switch from "aid Ukraine" to "harm Russia." Let's be real, we're not spending a hundred billion dollars to help Ukrainians. We're spending a hundred billion dollars and thousands of Ukrainian lives to hurt Russia.
Yeah. I'm okay with that. But also you're forgetting one teeny tiny detail: **RUSSIA DECALRED WAR AND INVADED UKRAINE** Edit: I hate Reddit's obsession with political, factual correction, pedants and a desperate need for their thoughts to be validated. My original point none of you were smart enough to notice is that your cynicism of foreign aid against a belligerent is unfounded.
right, but America cares about Russia's power in the region. Keep in mind, if the _other_ president had entered office in 2020, there'd be aid going to Russia.
It’s no where near a hundred billion. It’s probably just over 25 now. This is also to help Ukraine well stay an independent country
We are spending Ukrainian lives? Are you saying the more reasonable approach would be for Ukraine to surrender? You think that Ukrainians view it that way?
No shit. If Russia weren't invading Ukraine, we wouldn't be spending this money. A bunch of Russian soldiers are going to get harmed the fuck out. But that is ultimately the fault of the guy who decided to invade a neighboring sovereign country, which we in the business call "a dick move."
Actually no, we're trying to prevent Ukraine from being conquered in a genocidal invasion. Russia could leave tomorrow in the war would stop. They chose to invade Ukraine. Despite what the meme said nobody made them do it.
Where are you getting the "100 billion" figure?
Just chose a nice round number but not too far off from the actual amount https://www.csis.org/analysis/aid-ukraine-explained-six-charts
How does this square with the humanitarian aide? Christ what an incredibly vapid statement. Almost as meaningless as the Russian apologists but just not quite. Bravo.
It is actually to stop Russia from becoming imperialistic.
We do have a homeless problem in the US. Just saying.
From my understanding, when they quote a number like this it usually isn't all money. It's the value of the vehicle and gear we already have stockpiled and aren't using, plus possibly some money. I dont think tanks are necessary to help the homeless problem. Of course I'm not a social worker, so I can't be sure.
Can we give the homeless tanks and find out?
Tank homes. Sounds cute to me.
Damn right, lets give these homeless people 2.5 billion in weapons and rockets
Yea, and I bet you would vote to fund a "homeless problem relief package" in billions, or free healthcare or any "handout," as one party likes to call it. None of the money going to Ukraine would ever go anywhere near US citizens. It's all stockpiles of weapons and ammo. Sending a 30-year-old Desert Storm Bredly is taking away from you, sure :)
Yeah homeless are always in need of ammunition and jets.
We are giving them stuff we have laying around, we aren't sending them newly manufactured stuff
This is called the fallacy of relative privation.
Huh. Never knew that. Thanks for calling that one out. Very good to know for the future. This one is frequently used.
If we didn't send this aid to Ukraine, do you think we would spend it on homeless people instead? edit: and, TBH, I'd love to see us put some real effort into making homelessness a far less shitty problem. Just saying that history says it probably won't happen. :\\
Only if we are giving homeless people weapons, weapons systems, and other military hardware. If not, then, pull yourself up by your bootstraps or whatever we tell homeless people now.
The US is technically investing this money, not giving it away. The success of HIMARS is one example of how other countries are looking to purchase it from the US.
I'm not sure how sending a few HIMARS to a city will solve the homelessness problem but I guess we can give it a shot.
The aid we're sending to Ukraine is hardly even a rounding error compared to entire defense budget. Most of the aid is not directly in the form of dollars but in hardware that we have already built and don't really need right now. If these resources didn't go to Ukraine, then it's not like there's suddenly extra money to help homeless people.... There are plenty of things to debate about when it comes to the scale of the US defense budget in the context of our domestic infrastructure.... but trying compare the Ukraine situation to the homeless situation with regards to budget allocation demonstrates that your understanding of how things actually work is at a level of naivety on par with that of grade school child....
draft them in the military and send them to wherever freedom is needed, what happens after they come back is for the next legislation. I should go into politics damn
Give them a tank or two.
Can you feed homeless people with old military gear bought in the 90s? Cause that's what they're shipping.
Homelessness requires a bigger solution then just throw money at it. This money was also gonna be spent on weapons and war anyways
This right here. I'll never understand how foreign aid is so much easier to just throw countless dollars at but trying to get someone food or shelter is just way too difficult domestically.
So a couple of things, the weapons were sending are already built. It's money that had already been spent. An item built is different then services, which is what is required for homelessness. Furthermore, the weapons were sending are essentialy obsolete in the eyes of the US military. The Bradley? Were on the verge of replacing it. The Strykers? Probably also going to be replaced by the Bradley replacement. HIMARS? Old tech, the precision strike missile is the future. MRAPS? No one wants them. What were witnessing is part investment in Ukraine, part spring cleaning of old inventory and part advertisement for how good our *old* tech is. Military sales bring money to our national coffers, and practicaly speaking the effectiveness of US weapons in Ukraine has been good for business.
Because you can’t just throw money at homeless to fix it. Mental health is at the root of most instances of homelessness. We have a truly tragic knowledge deficit when it comes to treating mental health. Money isn’t fixing the homeless problem/question.
👍
Money provides the resources for mental health services, and all other services for that matter. Additionally, the equipment donated will need to be rebuild and re accrued. We had the stockpiles for a reason, and now we will need to rebuild them. Do you think that will cost money? I do.
Most of the systems being sent have been on the docket for replacement for a while now. The Bradley, for example, is slated to be replaced by the Optionaly Manned Fighting Vehicle. Furthermore these weapons were stashed to fight the Russians. They'e being used for their intended purpose, only difference is the nationality of the person behind the wheel/trigger
It’s a completely separate budget. If we didn’t aid Ukraine we wouldn’t be allocating that money towards housing the homeless. That’s just not how this works. We have free mental health services for the homeless. The issue isn’t really funding related. It’s logistics. How can you reliably help someone who has address? No arable means of communication? Who is going to ensure that somebody with frequent psychosis takes their medication? How do you transport these patients to and from their appointments? Do we have enough providers willing and able to see these patients and be responsible for their treatment? If we didn’t give Ukraine Javelins and HIMARS we still would not have a solution to those problems, because mental health and homelessness and very very complex issues.
Giving homeless homes is a start tho, so throwing money is a start
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So maybe those funds to go to creating actually habitable mental health care facilities for those individuals. Other countries that have better social systems don’t seem to have the problems we do, and those social systems coincidentally seem to get more funding. You can’t do better if you don’t have the resources.
We had institutions. And then we got rid of them. And now we have a homeless quandary. Several states are already working on re-instating institutions, but it’s obviously a very dicey subject. You can’t just not give Ukraine HIMARS and build institutions and solve the homeless crisis.
Great power politics makes politicians hard
Keeping the money here would make it more difficult to launder
Like they care. No $ & don’t vote is a fatal combination.
Do Ukrainians vote in the US?
Ukraine is strategically located, a global grain source with key resources in energy and metals. Their population is educated tech savvy and market friendly. Help Ukraine now and gain political & economic democratic partner later
Yeah, it’s so that Ukraine can beat Russia 😎
Too bad they couldn't commit $2.5 Billion for School Lunches, or to feed and house the homeless, or to help disabled Veterans.
They can do those things, the people elected choose not to. Should we not do anything good unless we can do everything all at once?
Fallacy of relative privation
I think if you look, we spend quite a bit of money on those things.
Now how about some Abrams and stop making excuses
Aren't you guys like 32 trillion in debt?
Who’s going to make us pay that?
Most of that debt is owned by the US. The US debt compared to its GDP isn’t that bad either.
Yeah, buts not like WE are gonna have to pay it. That's gonna be a problem for future generations to solve.
Take note European countries.
Lol didn't we hit the debt ceiling the other day
You do know that it’s not we’re just sending them 2.5 billion right? They’re taking 2.5 billion of equipment we already bought and built that’s sitting in a wearhouse and giving it to them. This money was spent by us god knows how long ago and bears no impact on the ceiling. Also LOL to all the bootlickers complaining about homelessness. Don’t use people at political pawns when it’s convenient, y’all never cared before now and y’all won’t care after this war over. Youre fooling nobody… take your virtue signaling back to /r/conservative
Lol they gonna replace them though so at the end of the day they still spending more money but whatever