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In reply to the discussion: War is 60% of our budget. That's the ONLY place cuts need to come from. [View all]DeSwiss
(27,137 posts)54. De nada.
- And once again, if we're diligent we can always find the answers had already been given, but are almost always overlooked. Shakespeare was right, what's past is prologue.....
The Purpose of War According to George Orwell (1984)
The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. Ever since the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of what to do with the surplus of consumption goods has been latent in industrial society. From the moment when the machine first made its appearance it was clear to all thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent for human inequality, had disappeared. If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And in fact, without being used for any such purpose, but by a sort of automatic process by producing wealth which it was sometimes impossible not to distribute the machine did raise the living standards of the average human being very greatly over a period of about fifty years at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.
But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction indeed, in some sense was the destruction of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motor-car or even an aeroplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction.
It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
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The primary aim of modern warfare is to use up the products of the machine without raising the general standard of living. Ever since the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of what to do with the surplus of consumption goods has been latent in industrial society. From the moment when the machine first made its appearance it was clear to all thinking people that the need for human drudgery, and therefore to a great extent for human inequality, had disappeared. If the machine were used deliberately for that end, hunger, overwork, dirt, illiteracy, and disease could be eliminated within a few generations. And in fact, without being used for any such purpose, but by a sort of automatic process by producing wealth which it was sometimes impossible not to distribute the machine did raise the living standards of the average human being very greatly over a period of about fifty years at the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries.
But it was also clear that an all-round increase in wealth threatened the destruction indeed, in some sense was the destruction of a hierarchical society. In a world in which everyone worked short hours, had enough to eat, lived in a house with a bathroom and a refrigerator, and possessed a motor-car or even an aeroplane, the most obvious and perhaps the most important form of inequality would already have disappeared. If it once became general, wealth would confer no distinction.
It was possible, no doubt, to imagine a society in which wealth, in the sense of personal possessions and luxuries, should be evenly distributed, while power remained in the hands of a small privileged caste. But in practice such a society could not long remain stable. For if leisure and security were enjoyed by all alike, the great mass of human beings who are normally stupefied by poverty would become literate and would learn to think for themselves; and when once they had done this, they would sooner or later realize that the privileged minority had no function, and they would sweep it away. In the long run, a hierarchical society was only possible on a basis of poverty and ignorance.
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War is 60% of our budget. That's the ONLY place cuts need to come from. [View all]
grahamhgreen
Dec 2012
OP
If it's military "RELATED" expenses then it's even more than 60% CIA, DIA, NSA etc...
uponit7771
Dec 2012
#2
Almost any science / technology program is dual purpose, even medical research...
reACTIONary
Dec 2012
#98
Thanks for the info. When LBJ said that we should seize the "high ground" of space...
reACTIONary
Dec 2012
#110
Media and pundits always say that Social Security/Medicare is ~40% of the budget
TheProgressive
Dec 2012
#4
Those trust fund assets came from FICA contributions over the years (and interest).
spooky3
Dec 2012
#72
The Military-Leisure Golf Complex = officials are tee-ing off at taxpayer expense at hundreds
Coyotl
Dec 2012
#64
It cost $300 million TOTAL in the period from 1967 to 1980 to eradicate small pox.
leftlibdem420
Dec 2012
#80
This is such a great statement on the purpose of war. Thank you for posting it.
Overseas
Dec 2012
#130
The pie chart in the OP represents the GENERAL FUND (programs paid for by income tax)
Lydia Leftcoast
Dec 2012
#119
Total military spending for 2012 is $1,219 bn - that is 35% of TOTAL government spend
Ian62
Dec 2012
#127
It's not just the "elephant" in the room, it's the pig in the room, considering more is paid to
mother earth
Dec 2012
#30
And how about a link that breaks out the defense budget into war related items
mostlyconfused
Dec 2012
#37
Absolutely! It looks by your graph that our best years were during low defense spending.
The Wielding Truth
Dec 2012
#41
"The bloated Pentagon budget has increased a staggering 95 percent dating back to 2000."
grahamhgreen
Dec 2012
#71
The fact that we don't talk about cutting military spending demonstrates the need for
Dustlawyer
Dec 2012
#117
I suppose a Republican would include Social Security benefits even though they don't come from the
JDPriestly
Dec 2012
#79
I wonder how much of that Operations and Maintenance goes to the oil industry.
valerief
Dec 2012
#97
first of all, there is still one war going. Second lemme educate you as a soldier...
pasto76
Dec 2012
#109
There's also 38 billion in increased Social Security costs from vetrans who can't
grahamhgreen
Dec 2012
#122
At the very least, bill Big Oil for the US military's "muscle" to get their product to market.
Old and In the Way
Dec 2012
#128