Forum Post: We need to see the link between militarism and military spending and current conditions

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." - D. D. Eisenhower

http://www.warresisters.org/militaryspending

Historically, military spending has been the single largest portion of Federal Funds budget. Since World War II, the percentage that goes to the military — current and past spending — has varied from 45 to 90 percent.

How Could Our Tax Money Be Used?

You can only spend money once. If our tax dollars are spent on the military, they cannot be used to meet basic human needs. At a time when people in the U.S. suffer — from hunger, poor health care, insufficient day care, substandard housing, inadequate mass transportation, deficient education, meager pollution control, and an inefficient profit-oriented energy program — it is easy to see how money could be better spent.

Many argue that military spending creates jobs, but dollar-for-dollar the same amount of money creates nearly twice as many jobs in education or health care as in the military. Additionally, military-related jobs do not result in socially useful goods. Millions of people are underfed, unemployed and homeless while billions of dollars are spent to fuel, house and store weapons, tanks, planes and ships, and to recruit and train our youth in the ways of war. Skilled scientists and engineers are perfecting methods of destruction rather than developing products that improve the quality of life. In addition, tax payers end up paying again to clean up after the military — one of the worst polluters on the planet.

We cannot know all the ways that military spending negatively affects our economy, but we know that it fuels inflation and is the biggest contributor to the deficit.