Is money wasted on defence ?

Question

e.g. wartime and parade clothing, wages,sophisticated weapons,meals, housing,pensions, tax free perks. etc etc

Answer 1

I don't think so, but then again, I'm the one receiving the wages, retirement, perks, etc, etc. In fact, I don't think that enough is spent on defense.

Personally, and based on what I've seen in Yahoo Answers, I think more money is wasted on education that's not being used, e.g. spelling, grammer, etc, etc.

Answer 2

I'm part of an Australian Military family and would like to ask What meals, housing, Parade clothes, tax free perks??? We have to cover all our own expenses, pay for our own uniforms, meals, pay rent like everyone else and we pay tax like everyone else. Our uniforms which we pay for out of our wages fall apart only after 1 wash and many of our training exercises cancelled because there isn't adequate funding or weapons and accessories. More money needs to go to defence. The average defence wage is only $40,000 a year and for this we risk our lives.

Answer 3

Maybe soldiers are asked to pay out more than they should for the spit and polish stuff, however it's the weapons contractors and ballooning weapons systems costs which cost the American taxpayer so dearly, the personnel related costs are just NOT that high by comparison.

My personal favorite is the "services" sector of the subcontracting which has SCAM written all over it.

It works like this.

You get a contract to deliver 100,000 widgets for the Army.

You are by law not permitted to make more than 2% profit on your contract. HOWEVER (here's the catch), that says NOTHING about how much it COSTS you to make widget.

So it's perfectly legal to buy 100,000 widgets from some Chinese company for 50 bucks, and then have your helpful subsidiary company well call them (HSC) for short. HSC, get's a subcontract from you to individually wrap each widget and charge your company for the service. So HSC wraps each widget tenderly and charges you 1000$/widget.

The profit on their widget wrapping service can be whatever they want. You can then - with a straight face, bill the Army 1000.51 for each widget and say you made some miniscule profit of 2%.

At the end of the year for being "such a good customer" HSC can then cut you a discount check for 1/2 of their profit.

That would be one example.

Answer 4

No it's not wasted.

We need to be strong at all times, or we could experience something worse than another Pearl Harbor.

What we pay our solders is disgraceful. They put themselves on the line everyday, so we may enjoy our freedom's.

They deserve better pay, housing, benefits and other "perks", as they can lose life or limb in an instant.

Answer 5

Ask the question on days like Dec 7th. My father used to say that in wartime nothing is too good for our soldiers, in peacetime thats just what they get, nothing.

Answer 6

well if you don't mind changing governments then maybe.
if you want to live through a war in your hometown then maybe you think defense is a waste.
it's kind of like saying locks on your door is a waste.
which is true if you don't mind just anybody walkingin anytime they want.

Answer 7

yes. money is being wasted on defense. we should put that money on hospitals and education

Answer 8

I wouldn't waste your tax money? Thanks for the check

Answer 9

what defense

we don't have defense, we have offense

Answer 10

no