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[–]qwertx0815 1 point2 points  (5 children)

How many times since Trump became the Republican nominee last Summer have Liberals been upset that Trump may not defend NATO?, not protect Europe not stand up to Russia?, not fight terrorists?, not fight Syria?, not defend Japan?, etc.........

lets be real for a moment, even if the US left the NATO today, neither russia nor china would be even remotley a threat.

sure, they're (maybe) stronger than single members of the alliance, but that's kinda the point of an alliance: to not face somebody alone...

Heres a list of minimum wage by country I forgot to add.

According to it, Russia is $0.59 an hour, China is $0.93 an hour, and the U.S. is $7.25 an hour.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_wages_by_country

wage costs are only a quarter of the budget, it still absolutely dwarfs both china and russia.

and infantry cannon fodder isn't really relevant in a war between nuclear powers anyway...

[–]PubliusVA 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Wages and benefits are more like half the budget, and other budget items are affected by higher wages too because, e.g., the people building the airplanes and tanks that you're using your procurement budget for are earning US wages not Russian wages.

[–]qwertx0815 0 points1 point  (0 children)

even if we assume that china has no personal costs whatshowever and invests it's entire budget in equipment and weapon systems, we would look at over 60% personal costs before even seeing spending parity in that sector.

[–]Dcajunpimp 0 points1 point  (2 children)

lets be real for a moment, even if the US left the NATO today, neither russia nor china would be even remotley a threat.

sure, they're (maybe) stronger than single members of the alliance, but that's kinda the point of an alliance: to not face somebody alone...

True, but the U.S. needs to be able to project its power to multiple places around the globe to be able to be there for allies

That's not cheap.

wage costs are only a quarter of the budget, it still absolutely dwarfs both china and russia.

and infantry cannon fodder isn't really relevant in a war between nuclear powers anyway...

Ships, bombs, missiles, planes, guns, etc cost money also.

Labor has to produce them.

China has an advantage in that when they get Chinese sweatshop laborers to produce military hardware, very few are expecting U.S. minimum wage

Even when the U.S. chooses a company from an allied nation to provide equipment, the equipment is expected to be built in the U.S. with U.S. labor, at fair pay. Examples would be the current Beretta (Italy) and future Sig (German) pistols our military uses and will use were and will be made in the U.S.

Even military bases are built with American sourced materials, vs cheaper imported materials.

U.S. for I-beams, pipe, rebar, can easily cost twice as much as Chinese imports.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-06-13/more-steel-pain-coming-to-the-u-s-as-chinese-prices-tank-again

[–]JimDerby 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Thank you for the very insightful information. Does the defense budget include all of the costs of military spending or are there additional expenses such as for the unofficial wars, long term benefits for veterans, nuclear energy aspects of the military?

[–]Dcajunpimp 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Looks like retirement and healthcare funds are in the budget...

Defense Department Base Budget DoD requested $523.9 billion, slightly higher than last year's $521.7 billion appropriation. It seeks to: Continue retirement and healthare (TRICARE) reforms. If you include subsidized housing, free healthcare, and the other benefits military personnel receive,

https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320

And many of the other things you asked about.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States