Why, when the military costs American taxpayers a huge amount, are Republicans fighting to cut spending on NPR instead? Our nation is the world’s largest center industry devoted to inventing and selling weapons capable of tremendous killing power. The corporations that form that industry have a great deal of money to spend, and translate that money into political influence.
President James Madison wrote, in Political Observations in 1795, that “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.”
Profit from war has brought about economic dependence on war, which has birthed a love of war. That love of war has softened our affection for liberty, and has led to a decay of democratic values in the United States of America.
Some hoped that the United States would be an exemplar of freedom for the rest of the world. Instead, we are shipping out weapons used to intimidate, oppress, and kill.
Would a “revenues” graph look different than “profits”, I wonder? I thought Russia played a bigger role than presented, for instance.
BTW, I’d like to recommend providing a source link to the graphics posted. We can google, of course, but attributions are always a good idea.
You bet – here’s a link. Sorry I didn’t put it in earlier. It was pretty early in the morning.
For the Stockhold International Peace Research Yearbook:
http://www.sipri.org/yearbook
To get to the data I cite here, without buying the yearbook, look at the summary booklet:
http://www.sipri.org/yearbook/2010/files/SIPRIYB10summary.pdf
As for profit vs. revenue, profit is the statistic that’s available.
Disaster capitalism strikes again!
The central bank is an institution of the most deadly hostility existing against
the Principles and form of our Constitution. I am an Enemy to all banks
discounting bills or notes for anything but Coin. If the American People allow
private banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation and
then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will
deprive the People of all their Property until their Children will wake up
homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered.
– Thomas Jefferson
Thank you progressives for The Federal Reserve. And the Progressive Income Tax.