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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2drtuz wrote

High military spending is very much not a good thing. While necessary for most countries, military spending is not really productive, it doesn't help build a better, more capable society and it's a lost opportunity to spend on things that would.

That's at best case, at worst case someone starts thinking that all that spending should really be put to some use and goes and does something catastrophically stupid like invades a neighbor.

That in modern world almost universally ends badly for all parties involved.

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Doctrina_Stabilitas t1_j2duudi wrote

It could be more efficient but it isn’t that bad a large portion of the US budget goes into healthcare and r&d

Am you are after all writing this text against military spending against on a thing developed using military r&d, mainly the internet (and likely on a GPS enabled device)

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pk10534 t1_j2ela2u wrote

It’s bizarre you’d claim defense spending isn’t productive when defense spending in the US alone gave the world GPS, the internet (ARPANET), EpiPens, BugSpray, Duct Tape, Computers via the Army Research Laboratory, Nuclear Energy, Walkie-Talkies, and more.

I would consider quite a few of those inventions to be instrumental in our building of a “better, more capable” society.

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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2emklp wrote

These are all unintended side effects, inverse of collateral damage really. Imagine if the same sums that go to military would have been put towards R&D with a goal of civilian use to begin with.

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pk10534 t1_j2endsf wrote

Those aren’t “unintended side effects” they were purposeful research projects. Do you realize how much money and planning and coordination went into projects like ARPANET, in conjunction with universities and the corporate world? To act as though these were accidents as if the DoD just stumbled into making GPS or ARPANET is just incredibly naive, to the point of sounding purposely facetious. You’re just making these claims that have no basis in reality and completely ignore the history of these projects and defense spending because you don’t want to admit that it has resulted in some pretty innovative projects.

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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2eysmd wrote

Of course they built them for a purpose, for the purpose of military use. It just happened that they were also incredibly useful for civilian use unlike many other DoD projects, but these projects weren't funded with that in mind.

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pk10534 t1_j2f0z9c wrote

Does it really matter what the intended purpose was..? You stated that it never led to a better society, I’ve now given you quite a few examples of when defense spending absolutely led to a better society.

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r2k-in-the-vortex t1_j2f6ouw wrote

You are cherry-picking random good accidents, what about all the rest of the military spending that had no other value than the military type? And do you think these advancements wouldn't have happened in civil sector anyway? They happened in military research because that's where the money went, not because military spending is inherently useful.

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