I've spent a lot of time recently talking about government spending and how it's my belief (and the numbers back me up on this) that we overspend on defense. This all started with a blog I wrote a couple weeks back in light of the talk concerning the budget and deficit. Two people then debated me on the issue at a bar this past weekend. A couple days later, I read and wrote about an article concerning the $436 million Congress is proposing we spend on additional Abrams army tanks the army says it doesn't need. That brings me to today, where I read a report regarding where our tax dollars went in 2012.
In 2012, some of the spending went as follows:
- 19% of the budget was spent on defense ($689 billion)
- 7% was spent on benefits for federal retirees and veterans ($254 billion)
- 3% was spent on infrastructure ($109 billion)
- 2% was spent on education ($73 billion)
- 2% was spent on science and medical research ($73 billion)
Those numbers aren't typos. In 2012, we spent roughly $180 billion more on defense than we did on veterans' benefits, infrastructure, education, and research combined. We spent a great deal more money on sending troops overseas than we did in taking care of them when they returned home. Poor infrastructure, which is far more dangerous on a regular basis than terrorism, received only 16% of the spending that defense received. Education and research are vitally important for any country to continually grow in a number of areas, yet they combined to only receive $146 billion in spending, compared to $689 billion for defense.
What's more important for the future of this country - to improve our education system, improve our infrastructure, and make significant strides in science and medicine, or to ease our paranoia of terrorism?
I say "paranoia," because that's largely what it is. According to the 2011 death statistics, the following is true:
- "You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane."
- "You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack."
- "You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack."
- "You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist."
- "You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack."
That's right. We spend nearly $700 billion a year to defend this country from something which is 404 times less likely to kill us than falling, while we largely neglect our veterans, schools, roads, and research. In this country, it seems as if fear and paranoia have come to dominate common sense and rationality.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1258
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/04/statistics-you-are-not-going-to-be-killed-by-terrorists.html
http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20080508135851/http://nsc.org/research/odds.aspx
In 2012, some of the spending went as follows:
- 19% of the budget was spent on defense ($689 billion)
- 7% was spent on benefits for federal retirees and veterans ($254 billion)
- 3% was spent on infrastructure ($109 billion)
- 2% was spent on education ($73 billion)
- 2% was spent on science and medical research ($73 billion)
Those numbers aren't typos. In 2012, we spent roughly $180 billion more on defense than we did on veterans' benefits, infrastructure, education, and research combined. We spent a great deal more money on sending troops overseas than we did in taking care of them when they returned home. Poor infrastructure, which is far more dangerous on a regular basis than terrorism, received only 16% of the spending that defense received. Education and research are vitally important for any country to continually grow in a number of areas, yet they combined to only receive $146 billion in spending, compared to $689 billion for defense.
What's more important for the future of this country - to improve our education system, improve our infrastructure, and make significant strides in science and medicine, or to ease our paranoia of terrorism?
I say "paranoia," because that's largely what it is. According to the 2011 death statistics, the following is true:
- "You are 17,600 times more likely to die from heart disease than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 12,571 times more likely to die from cancer than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 11,000 times more likely to die in an airplane accident than from a terrorist plot involving an airplane."
- "You are 1,048 times more likely to die from a car accident than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 404 times more likely to die in a fall than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 87 times more likely to drown than die in a terrorist attack."
- "You are 13 times more likely to die in a railway accident than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 9 times more likely to choke to death on your own vomit than die in a terrorist attack."
- "You are 8 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist."
- "You are 8 times more likely to die from accidental electrocution than from a terrorist attack."
- "You are 6 times more likely to die from hot weather than from a terrorist attack."
That's right. We spend nearly $700 billion a year to defend this country from something which is 404 times less likely to kill us than falling, while we largely neglect our veterans, schools, roads, and research. In this country, it seems as if fear and paranoia have come to dominate common sense and rationality.
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=1258
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/04/statistics-you-are-not-going-to-be-killed-by-terrorists.html
http://classic-web.archive.org/web/20080508135851/http://nsc.org/research/odds.aspx
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