What If Every Person Paid an Equal Share of the Military Bud
Sept 14, 2017 6:51:02 GMT -8
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Post by willie with tan lines on Sept 14, 2017 6:51:02 GMT -8
What If Every Person Paid an Equal Share of the Military Budget?
09/11/2017
Ryan McMaken
Government employees and their apologists like to lecture Americans about how "freedom isn't free." And indeed it isn't. In recent years, the US military establishment has cost the American taxpayer around $700 billion per year. Thanks to the hard work of the American taxpayer, the US military — and other "defense" agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security — the US government is the most well-funded in the world. in spite of numerous ongoing interventions worldwide, casualties in the US military are low thanks to highly-advanced technology funded by — you guessed it — the American taxpayer.
Now, for the sake of argument in this article, we'll just assume that the full $700 billion per year has something to do with actual defense. This is a highly debatable notion, of course. As more astute observers have noted in the past decade, it is not at all clear that the trillions of dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan have done anything at all to augment security in the United States. We'll also conveniently ignore the catastrophic failures of our extremely-well-heeled American security states, such as those on September 11, 2001.
All of that aside, we still find that American taxpayers are toiling mightily for their alleged freedom.
For this, reason, I've noted in the past that rather than the taxpayers thanking military personnel for their service, things should be the other way around:
The taxpayers should be regularly approached on the street by soldiers and other government agents saying things like:
"Thank you for paying me a salary that is higher than what I could earn with my skills and education level in the private sector."
"Thank you for providing us with state-of-the-art weapons, vehicles, and other equipment that keep casualties among American soldiers extremely low when compared with other militaries."
"Thank you for subsidizing my higher education, my mortgage, and for providing funding for other programs designed to assist veterans."
"Thank you for for getting up and going to work every day to so we call can enjoy a high standard of living, safe streets, and so much more that depends on a productive and hard working private-sector population."
There is no doubt that $700 billion is a lot of taxpayer money. But just how does this total break down on a per-person basis?
Well, if we divide $700 billion by the 320 million people in the United States, the per-person total comes out to $2,187 dollars. That's for each man, woman, and child.
But that's not the real total. We also need to add in the substantial amounts paid in interest to service a debt that has largely been run up to finance military spending. To be conservative, let's say that one-fifth of the interest goes toward servicing war debts.1
That brings us up to $2,300 per person, per year.2
Now, of course, these costs are not spread out evenly among all taxpayers. The relatively high-income households pay more than low-income people when it comes to federal taxes.
So, military personnel should especially be thanking higher-income taxpayers for their service.
But, if American were taxed evenly for military costs, that would mean that a family of four would be paying $9,200 per year for "defense." After all, children need military defense, too, and somebody has to pay for it. Why not their parents?
A large family, say one with four children, would be paying $13,800.
Given that the median household income in the United States is $52,000, this is no small amount.
If we're so concerned about Americans knowing that "freedom isn't free" it might be best to move toward a fee-for-service model. In that case, Americans would be acutely aware of how much they're shelling out for the military. On the other hand, were households faced with a $9,000 "defense" bill every year, they might be less inclined to thank someone else for spending all that money.
....
mises.org/blog/what-if-every-person-paid-equal-share-military-budget
09/11/2017
Ryan McMaken
Government employees and their apologists like to lecture Americans about how "freedom isn't free." And indeed it isn't. In recent years, the US military establishment has cost the American taxpayer around $700 billion per year. Thanks to the hard work of the American taxpayer, the US military — and other "defense" agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security — the US government is the most well-funded in the world. in spite of numerous ongoing interventions worldwide, casualties in the US military are low thanks to highly-advanced technology funded by — you guessed it — the American taxpayer.
Now, for the sake of argument in this article, we'll just assume that the full $700 billion per year has something to do with actual defense. This is a highly debatable notion, of course. As more astute observers have noted in the past decade, it is not at all clear that the trillions of dollars spent in Iraq and Afghanistan have done anything at all to augment security in the United States. We'll also conveniently ignore the catastrophic failures of our extremely-well-heeled American security states, such as those on September 11, 2001.
All of that aside, we still find that American taxpayers are toiling mightily for their alleged freedom.
For this, reason, I've noted in the past that rather than the taxpayers thanking military personnel for their service, things should be the other way around:
The taxpayers should be regularly approached on the street by soldiers and other government agents saying things like:
"Thank you for paying me a salary that is higher than what I could earn with my skills and education level in the private sector."
"Thank you for providing us with state-of-the-art weapons, vehicles, and other equipment that keep casualties among American soldiers extremely low when compared with other militaries."
"Thank you for subsidizing my higher education, my mortgage, and for providing funding for other programs designed to assist veterans."
"Thank you for for getting up and going to work every day to so we call can enjoy a high standard of living, safe streets, and so much more that depends on a productive and hard working private-sector population."
There is no doubt that $700 billion is a lot of taxpayer money. But just how does this total break down on a per-person basis?
Well, if we divide $700 billion by the 320 million people in the United States, the per-person total comes out to $2,187 dollars. That's for each man, woman, and child.
But that's not the real total. We also need to add in the substantial amounts paid in interest to service a debt that has largely been run up to finance military spending. To be conservative, let's say that one-fifth of the interest goes toward servicing war debts.1
That brings us up to $2,300 per person, per year.2
Now, of course, these costs are not spread out evenly among all taxpayers. The relatively high-income households pay more than low-income people when it comes to federal taxes.
So, military personnel should especially be thanking higher-income taxpayers for their service.
But, if American were taxed evenly for military costs, that would mean that a family of four would be paying $9,200 per year for "defense." After all, children need military defense, too, and somebody has to pay for it. Why not their parents?
A large family, say one with four children, would be paying $13,800.
Given that the median household income in the United States is $52,000, this is no small amount.
If we're so concerned about Americans knowing that "freedom isn't free" it might be best to move toward a fee-for-service model. In that case, Americans would be acutely aware of how much they're shelling out for the military. On the other hand, were households faced with a $9,000 "defense" bill every year, they might be less inclined to thank someone else for spending all that money.
....
mises.org/blog/what-if-every-person-paid-equal-share-military-budget