In response to: "The Empire"
I feel there are some good arguments to the post, but I'm not completely sold. I voted for Obama and I'm looking for a more respectful approach to other nations in our foreign policy, so I agree that we spend too much on Defense. However, I have no problem that we outspend all the other nations on National Defense. The world is a dangerous place and we need to prepared for fast rising adversaries who would take a jab at the United States. We learned that lesson from Pearl Harbor. So I hope there's no contradiction when I say, yes, spend less, but still spend a bunch!
With what to do with the savings from Defense, we could begin to shore up or restructure our entitlement systems. Social Security and Medicare is crippling the country and our elected leaders are afraid of any real reform because seniors are a powerful voting bloc.
On the other hand, you mention putting the savings into education which I'm entirely for. You lament that Americans can't see "past their TV screens" and are unaware of how staggering the Defense budget is. Perhaps putting the money into education, thereby creating a more educated voter (or potential voter), they would pay more attention to our national budget. They would potentially counter the senior voting bloc (because the more education a person is, the more likely they are to vote), restore the United States competitive edge (China and India are graduating many more engineers than we are), and surely stop us from putting so many children on a path to prison (studies show that the less education a person has, the increased likelihood they will end up in jail).
Investing in education sounds like a fabulous deal. So what's the problem, America?
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