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Defense Spending/Foreign Policy - Energy

 
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PostPosted: Mon Jul 14, 2014 9:23 pm    Post subject: Defense Spending/Foreign Policy - Energy Reply with quote

PeakTrader:

Too much spending on national defense isn’t a major problem.

The Gates Farewell Warning
America can be a superpower or a welfare state, but not both.
May 28, 2011

“In historical terms, the U.S. spends relatively little on defense today. This year’s $530 billion budget accounts for 3.5% of GDP, 4.5% when the costs of the Afghan and Iraq wars are included. The U.S. spent, on average, 7.5% of GDP on defense throughout the Cold War, and 6.2% at the height of the Reagan buildup in 1986.

The big three entitlements—Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, plus other retirement and disability expenses—eclipsed defense spending in 1976 and stood at 9.8% as of last year. Under current projections, entitlements will eat up 10.8% of GDP by 2020, while defense spending goes down to 2.7%.

Europe went down this road decades ago and today spends just 1.7% of GDP on defense. The Europeans get a free security ride from America, but who will the U.S. turn to for protection—China?

I have been a strong advocate of soft power—of the critical importance of diplomacy and development as fundamental components of our foreign policy and national security,” Mr. Gates said. “But make no mistake, the ultimate guarantee against the success of aggressors, dictators and terrorists in the 21st century, as in the 20th, is hard power—the size, strength and global reach of the United States military.””

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Nick G:

The US has wasted enormous amounts of money and human capital on wasteful and counterproductive military spending.

Waste of human capital: What percentage of US engineers are working on military projects? What’s that percentage in Germany?

Counterproductive military case in point: Iran, 1954. Iran had a nascent democracy, and the US helped reinstated a dictator in order to help ensure access to ME oil, directly leading to the events of 1979 and all of the negative consequences since: Iran’s nuclear program, Iran’s support of terrorism, US support for Saddam Hussein vs Iran which led directly to the first Gulf War, which led to 9/11, etc., etc.

If the US had diverted just a portion of it’s M.E.-related military R&D and operational spending to EVs, the US would be far more prosperous and secure.

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PeakTrader:

U.S. foreign policy has made the world much safer, in the second half of the 20th century and beyond, particularly with the introduction of nuclear bombs.

Thanks to the U.S., democracy and capitalism spread throughout the world, along with the explosion in globalization (i.e. open markets, free trade, and unrestricted capital flows), which made the world safer, more stable, and more prosperous.

If the U.S. followed your advice, U.S. per capita income would be even lower than Western Europe, i.e. over $10,000 a year less, with much more inefficiencies, in the economy, resulting in much lower living standards, while the world would’ve been much more dangerous.

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Nick G:

I hope you’re right, but…how does that relate to the US’ Mideast policy?

You need to spell out your logic. I don’t really see a downside to saving the $2T the US has spent on Iraq and Afghanistan, while redirecting much of the engineering talent spent on improving weaponry to R&D on things that make our lives better.

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PeakTrader:

You seem to believe if civilized societies allow evil people to run amok and shift from cheap energy to expensive energy, everything will turn out fine.

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Nick G:

We should avoid poking wasp’s nests unless it’s truly in our national self interest. If we (or our friends) didn’t need oil, we would never have invaded Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan. We would have saved trillions in cost.

Perhaps more importantly, we’d have saved thousands of lives. Heck, 270,000 veterans have brain injuries because of our recent wars in the ME. How many more young people do we want to sacrifice in order to protect oil company owners?

Oil is expensive, dirty and dangerous. Hybrids, EREVs and EVs are already the low cost choice for Total Cost of Ownership – look at Edmunds.com for the Nissan Leaf, Prius C, and Chevy Volt: you’ll see that they’re all less expensive than the competition.

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PeakTrader:

You want to make evil people and uncivilized countries richer and stronger, with cheap energy, and make good people and civilized countries poorer and weaker, with expensive energy.

Civilized countries should continue to kill two birds with one stone, ridding the world of evil people and taking cheap energy.

****

If electric cars were a bargain, consumers, throughout the world, would be snapping them up. Yet, the market remains weak.

And, the (real) costs of WWII were much higher.

Saudi Arabia and now Iraq are our allies.

Oil is mostly sold for U.S. dollars. So, countries sell valuable goods to the U.S. for worth less dollars. Iraq and Afghanistan were paid for by foreigners, indirectly.

The U.S. has consumed up to $750 billion a year more than produced in the global economy and in the long-run.

In exchange for free goods, the U.S. does the “dirty work,” that other countries won’t or can’t do, to stabilize the world and prevent even worse outcomes.

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