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Kaleva

(36,294 posts)

20. If China and Russia paid their service people what we pay ours...

Reply to tpsbmam (Original post)

Fri Nov 16, 2012, 04:16 PM

Nov 2012

those two nations would be close to us in defense expenditures.

About 50% of our defense budget goes to personal (pay and benefits). The average Chinese and Russian soldier doesn't get shit.

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A picture worth 1000 words: 2011 top 10 defense budgets.....share this [View all] tpsbmam Nov 2012 OP

There are our schools, our libraries, our roads, our bridges, woo me with science Nov 2012 #1

And 5 of the top 10 are our allies. Johnyawl Nov 2012 #2

+1 woo me with science Nov 2012 #3

I wish they'd add that to the graphic. Dark n Stormy Knight Nov 2012 #9

And one of them - Saudi Arabia - spends all of that in the US Scootaloo Nov 2012 #12

It would be interesting to know how much those other countries spend on American armanents? kentuck Nov 2012 #4

K&R n/r AntiFascist Nov 2012 #5

An old tale joesdaughter Nov 2012 #6

K & R Change has come Nov 2012 #7

Our national priorities have consequences. BlueStreak Nov 2012 #8

The graphic is incomplete. SheilaT Nov 2012 #10

We need to spend so much on defense JDPriestly Nov 2012 #11

And that's less than half of our total military spending. Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #13

+1 for Fatherland Defense, CIA and other military slush funds. Scuba Nov 2012 #14

And here's a nice ditty on what we could do with that, if we had a choice. Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #16

Well done, thanks for posting! Scuba Nov 2012 #17

this is why we can't have nice things. KG Nov 2012 #15

If we can't afford to educate our children, to tend to our sick or care for our elderly ... Scuba Nov 2012 #18

We could do all of that for the entire world and save 75% of the money and not Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #19

Well sure, but how can the wealthiest among us get wealthier doing that? Scuba Nov 2012 #21

That's why they bought both parties. Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #22

If China and Russia paid their service people what we pay ours... Kaleva Nov 2012 #20

Not even close. And it's personnel. n/t Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #23

China has well over twice as many on active duty as we do. Kaleva Nov 2012 #24

China's military can go anywhere they can't walk to, and you know it. Egalitarian Thug Nov 2012 #25