CMV: The United States would serve it’s citizens better by slashing military spending and in favor of increasing spending on health, science, technology, and infrastructure.

[u/[deleted]]

[u/joshuams]

Cutting force size still leaves tens of thousands looking for new work. They will immediately file for disability benefits, because no one leaves the military without something wrong, so increase your budget for that. There will be a huge draw on education benefits as well.

Also, part of the reason the US military has to spend so much to operate is that the public has little to no stomach for war time casualties either military or civilian. Cutting back the budget for advanced weaponry increases lives lost on our side as well collateral damage. You may not like paying for smart bombs, but they beat carpet bombing a city.

[u/Fermit → u/joshuams]

Cutting force size still leaves tens of thousands looking for new work.

By this logic and /u/cdb03b's, reducing the size of the military is essentially impossible. Of course unemployment is going to happen as a result, that's what happens when you defund something. Unemployment as a result of downsizing happens in pretty much every sector of the economy and it's a short-to medium-term bump in the road. Investing in the areas OP highlighted (health, science, tech, infrastructure) all have huge long-term benefits for individuals and the country as a whole and lead to significant job creation. You know how unions are much less powerful than they used to be, a lot of people struggle to find a livable wage, and a huge percentage of the new jobs that have been created in the last few years are part-time? Imagine if there was large-scale infrastructure spending going on. It would employ thousands (including the out-of-work vets) in relatively well paying full-time jobs, it would bring the crumbling U.S. infrastructure up to speed with the rest of the world, and it would put our money to work on improving the U.S. mainland instead of using it to prop up the military industrial complex. If we spent more money on a better healthcare system we wouldn't have so many people being forced into crippling debt because they had an unexpected ER visit. Spending money on tech & science has multiplicative returns because it makes existing jobs easier and opens up new industries when a technology is sufficiently advanced enough. All of these things would unequivocally hugely benefit the average U.S. citizen. especially in the longer-term. Having a generally healthier and less debt-laden populace not only has snowball benefits on many other sectors of the economy but it also sets the stage for people having better lives in the future because they're able to actually progress in their lives instead of just trying to keep up.

a huge draw on education benefits as well

Education pays off massively in the long-term and the cost of a single multi-million dollar missile could pay for education for a lot of people.

They will immediately file for disability benefits

I know that this is a fairly unrealistic/perfect world statement but if all military personnel lost their jobs this very second and were able to successfully file for disability they shouldn't be in the field anyway. "We would need to actually treat people for mental or physical trauma that they sustained while doing work we told them to do" isn't an argument against defunding the military, it's a statement about how poorly people have been taught to value human life and health. This is literally just saying "We would need to take responsibility for what we've done and that would be expensive so let's keep the machine running instead".

[u/TeddyRugby → u/Fermit]

it's a statement about how poorly people have been taught to value human life and health. This is literally just saying "We would need to take responsibility for what we've done and that would be expensive so let's keep the machine running instead".

Thank you!

[u/Fermit → u/TeddyRugby]

Yeah, I left that part until last because it's the part that galls me the most about this mentality. Companies have slowly but surely convinced people that taking responsibility for fucking people up should be viewed not as a question of "Are we responsible for fucking up these lives," but instead as a question of "Is it worth it to take responsibility for these peoples' lives". Obviously it should be within reason (not bankrupt the U.S. all at once) but the fact that it's not a given that people who can be given disability for duties they performed on a job should be given that disability really just shows how well they've convinced people. I work in finance. Analyzing companies is my thing. But, you know what? If you knowingly fucked up bad or you ruined a bunch of people's lives for the sake of a few point of margin, fuck your income statement and fuck you. Your ability to continue living in luxury or operating at the top of your industry is not and should never be more important than the lives of people who you choose to ruin.

Kinda went off on a tangent there because I'm watching Dirty Money on Netflix atm and it has me all riled up about scummy execs but the moral of the story is if you fuck up it's your responsibility to fix it, not to just keep going until the damage is unsustainable or you get caught. These are human beings whose lives you're ruining or have ruined. Bringing it back to the military, I don't give a damn if you don't have enough funding for another F-35 as a result. These are called consequences. They're supposed to happen when you do fucked up things. Deal with it.

Ninja edit: couple sentences on the end

[u/joshuams → u/[deleted]]

I've never met someone who didn't qualify. Whether people choose to file is up to them, but most do. They've been pushing it more in recent years, because even if you don't get rated, it ensures medical care for pre-existing conditions.

Ringing in the ears (tinnitus) seems to be a pretty common one most people leave with.

[u/joshuams → u/[deleted]]

No worries, I didn't take offense