Why defense spending is good

The economic trade-offs associated with defense spending have been underexamined compared with other aspects of the debate about U.

Yet these trade-offs might be of greater public interest in coming years. In early , as the United States remains in a recession amid the coronavirus disease pandemic, questions about how different budget choices affect economic performance might become more salient.

Once the immediate crisis has passed, the country will have an even larger public debt than before and might also have to grapple with the question of what level of defense spending is sustainable in the long term. In this report — the first in a series on the security and economic trade-offs associated with competing visions for U.

To do so, they consider what the effect on growth would be if the United States were to adopt any one of three policy changes: reallocate funds between defense spending and infrastructure investments, change its overall level of defense spending and apply the difference to public debt, or increase taxes to finance defense spending.

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Even so, U. Today, at least million people live in U. This microscopic particulate matter , measuring 2. After a steady seven-year decline, fine particle pollution increased 5. While most U. Dangerous contaminants—including arsenic, copper and lead—can still be found in tap water nationwide.

Community water systems serving nearly 30 million people , for example, violated the EPA lead and copper rule between January and March Another 16 million people across 35 states drink water contaminated by perchlorate , a rocket fuel component used on U. The hundreds of billions the U.

Besides its perchlorate problem, its more than 4, installations across the country are home to 39, contaminated sites , of which are listed among the EPA Superfund sites that are among the most polluted in the nation. Likewise, the U. Compared to the Pentagon, the federal agencies charged with safeguarding the environment are barely scraping by. Any assessment of threats to national security must include the danger posed by human-caused climate change.

Marked by heat waves, droughts, wildfires, extreme precipitation, flooding and other severe weather events, global warming intensifies the health and environmental crises described above.

For example, the higher temperatures and increased rainfall brought on by climate change amplify the threat of infectious diseases such as Zika and Ebola, allowing parasites, viruses and bacteria transmitted by mosquitoes, ticks, flies and fleas to spread diseases to areas that did not experience them before. Like infectious diseases, heat waves can kill. From through , an average of U.

Meanwhile, the number of annual heat waves in 50 U. September has been just as bad, at least for Californians. Scientists predict it will only get worse unless we take dramatic steps to slash carbon emissions. The National Climate Assessment , a collaboration of 14 federal agencies, forecast that heat stroke and similar heat-related illnesses will kill tens of thousands across the country every year by the end of the century. Wildfires, drought and hurricanes—intensified by climate change—are also wreaking havoc.

This year alone, more than 7, wildfires , fueled by record heat and drought, have burned in California, destroying some 2. And in the Atlantic Ocean, a marine heat wave is triggering an an unusually active hurricane season. To its credit, the Pentagon—unlike President Trump and members of Congress —officially recognizes the climate threat.

A January Pentagon report on the subject, for instance, found that 46 of the U. Unfortunately for the planet, however, global warming is not an enemy the Pentagon is prepared to fight.

According to a June report by the Government Accountability Office, an independent congressional watchdog, military facilities are not moving quickly enough to address climate threats, and the Pentagon is not providing enough guidance on how to use climate change projections to protect bases or the personnel on them.

Worse yet, the Pentagon is also is a major part of the problem. Although it significantly reduced its fossil fuel consumption over the last two decades, the U. Between and , the five military branches collectively emitted 1. Left unchecked, the costs of the climate crisis will be astronomical. Extreme weather events and other climate change—related impacts are already costing billions of dollars a year in property damage.

In late July, both the U. House and Senate failed to keep military spending in check. If there is any place to start cutting the military budget, it is the nuclear arsenal. The United States far outspends every other member of the nuclear club. The economic cost of defense spending shows up in the national debt and in a dislocation of potential jobs from the private sector to the public.

There is an economic distortion of any industry that the military relies on as resources are diverted to produce better fighter planes and weapons. All of these costs are necessary for a nation to bear if they are to defend themselves.

We give up some butter to have guns. In a democracy, that issue is debated by publicly elected officials and changes from year to year. In recent years, military spending in the U. Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Accessed Dec. The Library of Economics and Liberty. Government Accountability Office. Department of the Treasury. Congressional Budget Office. Government Publishing Office. The World Bank. Your Privacy Rights. To change or withdraw your consent choices for Investopedia.

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We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification. I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Key Takeaways Every dollar spent on defense is a dollar not spent on other public services.

On the other hand, dollars spent on the military wind up in the private sector as payment for goods and services the military requires. Military spending may skew civilian technology development, but talent and applications flow both ways. Guns and Butter This famous model illustrates the balance between military and civilian spending priorities. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work.