TIMES article: http://battleland.blogs.time.com/2011/11/21/friday-evenings-furtive-f-22-fix/?xid=tweetbut http://gizmodo.com/5861838/74-billion-of-your-tax-dollars-are-upgrading-the-never+used-f+22 Our defense spending is out of control, result of years of giving congress/pentagon a blank check. I understand the need to keep our country safe but they have to be smarter with the way they are allocating our tax dollars.
Think about how much real and useful scientific research and development we could be funding with that cash. The entire budget of the National Science Foundation is only around 6 billion dollars. Hell NASA's budget is only around 17 billion dollars in a year.
But, it's not like they just go burn a pile of cash. It cycles back through contractors into salaries, wages, technologies, and paid taxes. After the Germans raided Pearl Harbor, I don't think this country is ever going to get caught less than prohibitively armed. (do kids even watch Animal House anymore?)
this kind of stuff makes me so angry! this money should be going to public education and/or health care!
Obviously but that doesn't make it efficient spending. All government spending works like that. But using that money to fund USEFUL research and development would be far more efficient. I'd rather have agencies like the NSF, NIH or NASA handing out grants to scientists with promising technology or directly funding R&D (in NASA's case). At least we'd be getting some useful technology in the process. We're wasting money on technology we won't use.
Animal House - 1978 John Blutarsky's inspirational speech to the boys of Delta House (a pretty common joke if you are really old) And I'm not defending the expenditure too hard, I'm just saying as shocking as the figure sounds it cycles back in to the economy pretty quickly and pretty completely, though it doesn't produce permanent infrastructure improvements or necessarily technology advancement (though that's not 100% predictable).
If the Mongol Horde overruns your country, they take your money, rape your wife and kill you and your babies. So, you may want to pony up for national defense. Maybe you guys are a generation too far from WW2.
I'm not advocating completely getting rid of the military, I just don't think we need such a massive military budget when our biggest threat seems to be from people who are having trouble making bombs without getting caught or lighting their underwear on fire.
I think the point is that this isn't a defense project, even if it is labeled as such. Since what it's being spent on doesn't work, it can't help defend us. One alternative use not already mentioned that might appeal to you would be to spend the money on use-able defense.
Ignorant to argue that because a capability isn't needed in our current conflicts that it won't have use in other conflicts. There happens to be a large communist dictatorship developing an advanced fighter fleet as we speak. The question is not whether a weapon system is in use in any given conflict. The question is does the weapon system provide a capability that we might need in future conflicts. I can't speak to whether the F-22 is the best way to achieve air dominance/superiority (no one here is qualified to say), but to argue that it's a waste because we aren't using it is just stupid. The commenters have it right:
A large Communist dictatorship whose economy would collapse if western consumers were banned from buying their goods and western CEOS shut down their sweatshops.
The $7.2 bil funds aren't being used for defense. I rather watch that money spent on actual combat, such as $7.2 bil in upgrades for planest used in Afghanistan over a $7.2 billion upgrade for a glorified show plane that has not seen combat.
Bruce Lee did all that training so no one would dare f**k with him and he didn't have to fight. Plus the white chicks dug it. Where does the money go? Does it disappear? Does it go into foreign hands? Sure the big wigs post the bonus money and put in their investment accounts, but for the most part, high tech defense expenses go right back into the American economy, greasing the wheels. It's not a big net loss even though it's huuuuge number. It comes out of the left pocket and goes in the right pocket. When 10 years down the road, Japan, Taiwan, Viet Nam and The Philipines come crying that China is dominating the South China Sea in a little shooting war and want you to honor your treaties and you don't have air superiority what are you going to do? ask nicely?
