Dwain Northey (Gen X)

In the fiscal year 2023, the federal government is estimated to spend $6.3 trillion, amounting to 24.2 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). Each year federal agencies receive funding from Congress. The Department of Defense (DOD) had $1.80 Trillion distributed among its 6 sub-components.

According to my calculations, nearly 30% of our federal budget is on defense. Saying Defense gives us a false sense that this is keeping us safe, but we can all see the turmoil around the world and in our own cities, all this spending but is it really keeping us safe. The Biden administration is asking for $1.5 billion for Israel, Ukraine, and the border that is 1/2 of 1% of our total defense budget. Republicans are as usual against this because they can’t even keep their house in order. If America is a bastion of Democracy and has led the world in that arena since WWII ½% of our bloated defense budget seems like a small price to preserve democracy in the world.

Globally we spend Trillion of dollars killing each other, tens of thousands of dollars on bombs that destroy infrastructure that can only be used once. This seems like a huge waste of capital, spend on an efficient way to decimate something that will cost more to rebuild. These resources would be better spent on solving problems instead of creating them. The time and money we spend killing one another could have solved world hunger, created oases in the desert countries by efficiently desalinating water, made renewable energy cheap and efficient, but that isn’t in our nature.

Gene Rodenberry’s picture of a time when we explore without the desire to conquer seems to be a dream that will never come to fruition. We assume that if there are other world out there that they are violent because we are, our narcissism has us believe that other life forms haven’t evolved out of the violence that we perpetuate.

My hope is that one day that effort is made to help instead of harm, to grown instead of tear down. It’s a hope…

Feel free to respond to any of my post.