Looks like we have really Backwards priorities.
Based on figures in the document, the average cost of one F-35 -- $62 million when the program was launched in 2002 -- could rise to $115.5 million, not counting inflation, by the time all 2,457 planes that the U.S. plans to buy are built.
(I'm stepping out now, I have a long commute and long day tommorow, so I won't be able to reply to your comments)
2,457 of these planes at $115.5 million a plane. That number is so high that it can't fit into my TI-83 calculator. But no, shut shut up! It's those LOAFERS on welfare that are taking all our money! $354.3 billion. This is 2.7% of GDP. This also includes Medicaid, Earned income tax credits, child tax credits, and other programs. We spent ... See Moredouble that to bail out the banks! I am so SICK of people saying we should "cut government spending, no more BIG government" and they ignore military spending and bailout spending completley. Why is it that we love to blame the poor and the helpless, but not the wealthy and the powerful? Do me a favor, go dig up some old comic books and you will see that the "bad guys" were usually corporate mobsters, which would resemble the CEOs of AIG and Shitibank. This is also a pox on the cultural community of the United States. A lot of these "tea party" people rant and rave about "big government." Well here it is! The war machine! Economically, the biggest chunk of the "budget pie" is the "defense" budget. Defense! Besides 9/11, we've only had Pearl Harbor, and the last invasion was during the Mexican American war. It should really be called the "Offense" budget. So Here's the math : In 2009 for US federal spending 23% went to "Offense", 4% went to TARP(The bank bailout). Together, Social security and Medicare/Medicaid made up 39%. "Other mandatory/discretionary" made up 29%, and the interest that usually goes to China and elsewhere made up 5%. As a nation, we suffer from Stockholm Syndrome. We identify with our oppressors (Big corporations, and the Military Industrial Complex). Somewhere down the road, not tommorow or a week from now, people will realize that they have been ripped off. Every day I grow more sickened by these people that insist that crooks get lambourginis and bread crumbs for the sick and the poor. And now I know what we are up against. The right-wing in this country define "freedom" as the right for corporate takeover of nearly ALL aspects of life. Our water, our internet, and for fuck's sake, even 1/3 OF OUR GENES ARE PATENTED BY A SINGLE CORPORATION!!! So their "freedom" means the "freedom" to trample over our freedoms. My genes belong to me Health is not a commodity that should be bought and sold. Water is a human right. They don't see it that way. They see democratic ownership of anything, wheter it be a national health program, or even public education; they see those as a threat. Their vision is profits before people at all times. Bombs before bread. Killing and stealing. If I were to murder somebody, I'd get life in prison, but when we wage military and economic warfare against other defenseless countries it's just all fine. There is a video that came out that shows US troops murder an american reporter, and innocent iraqi civilians in cold blood. The pentagon hid this of course, saying they "lost the tape." Although stuff like this happens probably all the time, it just shows how morally bankrupt our government has become. When the IMF forces loans and radical reshifting of countrie's economies in order to get better loans, this is murder on a large unaccountable scale. When we bailed out the banks, this makes, and will make every heist movie look like a joke. How much did they steal in Ocean's 11, like 13 million? as opposed to $700 Billion robbed from taxpayers? But through it all, there is a little shining light of optimisim. For example, we don't overthrow democratically elected governments that much anymore. We fight wars a little bit more humanely than we used to (Asshole war criminal, and Secratary of state Henry Kissinger under Nixon suggesting we use "anything that flies against anything that moves" on the vietnamese). And we do make these little bursts of progress every now and then. We are at a crucial junction here in terms of everything social and political. Debt wars, global warming, and warring, a growing wealth disparity, overcrowding prisons, a broken education system, and a healthcare system that will become broke because of people's "freedoms" like smoking cigarettes and eating fast food (I'm not advocating these things be banned, just saying that our choices have consequences). All of these fatties and Buttheads will cost a lot of money. This is how much we have to deal with, and I've only mentioned less than half. Even then, none of it will matter if we end up getting ourselves blown up by nuclear weapons that the Pentagon still insists on keeping. So this is how I view the world; it's ok to have your own political beliefs about things, and I even surprise myself with how "moderate" I view certain issues, but at the end of the day, it is us who will make the difference. The more informed we become, the more we can defeat their self-serving lies. I hate viewing the world as "black and white" but what it is starting to boil down to is: the side that wants a fair shake, that wants nice things, and wants to progressively make our country better and improve the overall quality of life, or the side that wants to reward bad behavior, kick sand in the face of the rest of the world, make enemies and have corporate rule. Going back to my comic book days, I pick the side of the superhero.