US Military Expenditure

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We're always hearing about how the Imperium spends more on defense than 5,780 countries combined. However, there's also all those stories about $900 hammers, etc. So granted it's a quite large enterprise but how much of it is actually spent on really useful bombs and stuff and how much is just waste? Russian generals get paid in potatoes and they've still kind of managed to hold their end up in Chechnya over the last decade, so what's more relevant, a huge budget or cost-effectiveness?

― dave q, Thursday, 26 September 2002 07:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Also, is 'neo-imperialism' another euphimism for 'compassion fatigue' or is it some people's idea of solution for same?

― dave q, Thursday, 26 September 2002 07:23 (twenty-three years ago)

I'm hoping that the bombs never turn out to be "useful"

$900 hammers? even if it is a dangerous throwing hammer that's pretty inefficient

― Sofa King Alternative (Sofa King Alternative), Thursday, 26 September 2002 14:05 (twenty-three years ago)

Classic Q.

― the pinefox, Thursday, 26 September 2002 14:21 (twenty-three years ago)

I do not want to defend U.S. military expenditures. However:

These items must meet specifications that include functioning under extreme conditions (altitude, temperature, humidity, sandstorms, being used by high school dropouts, etc.). In the late 1980s there was a lot of fuss over the military ordering fax machines built to some very fancy specs, instead of buying them off the shelf. Then came Desert Storm, during which these special fax machines, a major means of communicating while in the field, held up under conditions that would have ruined the average office fax.
The US$900 hammer was attributed to the baroque procurement process of that time. These processes supposedly have been reformed -- the consulting firm where I'm working right now has some sort of hammer award from then-VP Gore for the company's role in "reinventing government."

― j.lu (j.lu), Thursday, 26 September 2002 14:23 (twenty-three years ago)

fourteen years pass...

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/03/22/us/is-americas-military-big-enough.html

$54bn proposed increase

― F♯ A♯ (∞), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 17:47 (eight years ago)

Trump hasn't mentioned dunning our allies for more money to pay for our military machine lately, to my best knowledge. Same thing about money for the border wall. He better start working those phones!

― a little too mature to be cute (Aimless), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 18:54 (eight years ago)

I thought he said some shit about it when he met with Merkel?

― Not the real Tombot (El Tomboto), Wednesday, 22 March 2017 19:02 (eight years ago)

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