[…] An Inadequate Defense Budget? Compared to Whom? Compared to When? […]

The US Congress invests their personal money in companies who make war. Its a win-win proposition for themselves. If they are going to play this game then they should use the money to benefit the people. They should use that money to solve our energy problems by developing alternative energy sources and deploying them in the US. We aren’t going to rule the oil spigot in the Middle East with our overly funded military (we tried and failed). I think part of the problem is that defense is easy to sale to the public, it has a masculine and protective aspect to it which appeals to the population, and it provides jobs.

If we could organize like the Roman plebes of old then we could gain concessions. They need us to continue what we do, day in and day out. We should stop doing things that make them happy, but does not harm our overall survival. Secessio plebis! “Secessio plebis (withdrawal of the commoners, or Secession of the Plebs) was an informal exercise of power by Rome’s plebeian citizens, similar to a general strike taken to the extreme. During a secessio plebis, the plebs would simply abandon the city en masse and leave the patrician order to themselves. Therefore a secessio meant that all shops and workshops would shut down and commercial transactions would largely cease. This was an effective strategy in the Conflict of the Orders due to strength in numbers; plebeian citizens made up the vast majority of Rome’s populace and produced most of its food and resources, while a patrician citizen was a member of the minority upper class, the equivalent of the landed gentry of later times. Authors report different numbers for how many secessions there were. Cary & Scullard (p. 66) state there were five between 494 BC and 287 BC.[1]”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secessio_plebis

It is very refreshing, reading the comments above that so many Americans are now beginning to “get it”. Congrats to Mr. Wheeler for his very important contribution to understanding the monetary impact of the maniacal goal of world-wide domination. President Eisenhower also had a few words to say about “opportunity costs” — which is those individuals and their financial burden which are not doing things helpful to the society as a whole instead of consuming resources on behalf of the killing machine. For instance, when I was a young man growing up in the Midwest the policeman was indeed your friend. Every once in a while it would be necessary to pull a teenager aside and have a talk about reckless driving. Under the militarization today, however, even righteous middle class housewives are being brutalized by sadistic gestapo police tactics.

The polarization of “left vs. right” and party affiliation needs to unite for the common cause of “de-militarization”. We need to starve (economically) the destructive machine in a dramatic fashion ASAP in order to breath again as a free people making a positive contribution to the greater global community.

All of this is a consequence of America not heeding the warning of Dwight Eisenhower. There is very much a military-industrial complex and it’s not for our benefit. Its purpose is to funnel more and more money into itself.

The defense budget is in no way proportionate to the “threats” that the US faces. Islamic jihad movements? China? Maybe Russia now that there is a (mostly self-inflicted by the US) diplomacy incident? These don’t justify the amounts spent.

But its not just the money (although the consequences of that are huge). It is also about the impact that this militarism is having on society. The US can have a militaristic society or a democratic society. Not both.

There is no amount of the finite resource of money that can achieve the infinite aims of security by world conquest, euphemistically termed “Full Spectrum Dominance” through militarism and war fighting capabilities. Our leaders are chasing a chimera, with their impossible greed for omniscience and power that is nothing short of seeking to become like God. These are precisely the means that the Son of God rejected at Easter.

Very interesting analysis. Congratulations to Mr Wheeler.
One should also take into account radically different level of hourly salaries
in the countries under comparison.
What are cumulative man-hours of defense spending in USA, in China and in Russia?
Myself, I have no idea.