this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2024
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Always a struggle for me. I saw Canada's demo CF-18 at an airshow a few years back and was having simultaneous thoughts of "so this is why we can't afford clean water for our indigenous communities" and "HOLY SHIT IT SOUNDS SO COOL".
I see military spending as a necessary evil, it's like paying your insurance policy against the evils in the world. There will always be someone with a stick willing to beat someone weaker than them. So you could theoretically spend that military money on something "more useful", but if all your friends do that as well, you won't be able to enjoy that nice world for very long.
Also, people usually highly overrate how much a country spends on defense and underrate how much is spent on social security. Where I live, in Belgium, with a similar military budget as Canada (in terms of % of GDP) they did a survey once and asked people to estimate how many euros out of €100 of tax money went to the military and other things. People on average thought it was €6.1 to the military and €17.4 to social security. In reality the proportions are just €1.3 to the military and €37.5 to social security.
So I guess what I'm saying is: it's okay to enjoy the cool noises without guilt. You paid for it, it's necessary, and at least they're providing people with some entertainment now.
Canadians and Belgians can probably feel okay. As an American I'm disgusted by the waste. But that's kind of our bag and there's a long list of things that we waste money on.
Frequently those problems could be solved for the cost of a single aircraft.
You can't afford clean water for indigenous people because they couldn't buy one fewer aircraft.
You needed all 138.
idk about this one, idk much about canada, but water infrastructure is more complicated than just "here's some money" and there's also the inevitable governmental over spending problem that seems to encroach everything.
it's also worth noting that we're comparing two irrelevant things here, it's like me comparing the worlds loudest yell to the sound of an f35 flying at altitude. Yeah they're comparable to each other. In the sense that they both make noise.
And when standing on the ground, the yell is louder, even though the military spent 80 million dollars on the jet. You'd be surprised how far cash can go in the right hands. (The right hands being critical)
I was actually basing my complaint on the comparitive cost of the B-2 stealth bomber, and the (at the time) cost of repairing the ogalala aquifer, estimated to cost about the same as the 2 billion dollar aircraft.
Can't afford clean water for indigenous people when you want to exterminate indigenous people.
You don't need planes for that. You just need a systematic foot on their necks. You know, like we do for the rest of the poors.
We can't afford another plane because we need another highway first.
Huh. What a weird coincidence. Out of all the many communities in Canada, it just happens to be the indigenous ones that have to make do without clean water because of military spending. What are the odds?