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pk10534 t1_j2ela2u wrote

Reply to comment by r2k-in-the-vortex in [OC] Around 30% of countries spend more than 2% of GDP on their military by IndeterminateYogurt

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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