In the last few months we heard that a vote for Obama meant we would become more like Sweden.
So what’s wrong with that?
For years Sweden has been ranked #1 for having the highest standard of living in the world. It is also has the highest life expectancy for Western nations, ranking 8 in the world behind places like Japan, but 18 rankings ahead of the US (ranked 26). Sweden has universal health care, free college education, 5 weeks of paid vacation each year. And they get paid time and half while on vacation! They have a large safety net for people who become unemployed, and they make every effort for people to get an education and a job.
We could accomplish the same thing in the US if we wanted to. Most people think we would need to raise taxes, but this isn’t necessarily true. Currently the US has more than 700 foreign military bases in 130 countries. The US military budget is bigger than all other military budgets in the world combined! When looking at the official defense spending budget, the emergency discretionary spending of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the associated defense related spending in other departments, the US is currently spending over $1 trillion a year on the Military. Most of this money does not go to actually defending the US from foreign invaders, but in meddling in the affairs of other nations – i.e. what we have is not a military defense, but largely a military offense. The question has to be asked how much would it cost to actually create and maintain the strong (est) military defense of our nation’s soil? Even if the US were to cut this $1 trillion dollar spending in half, the US would still have the largest military budget in the world. If the US were to withdraw it’s "empire bases" overseas, bring the military home from foreign wars, and focus on our our nations defense, the military could be significantly reduced.
What about terrorism?
As most experts have argued, taking a conventional military approach to defeating terrorism is like using a sledgehammer to kill a few rogue termites. I am reminded of the show Le Femme Nikita. Despite the oppressive inner workings of how the anti-terrorists "sections" in the show worked, the overall purpose and effectiveness of a covert, highly trained and nimble network of anti-terrorist units could do far more to disable real terrorists threats than all the military's of the world combined. After 9-11, and before the full run-up to war, many military and policy experts were arguing for just such a strategic approach. Clearly such an approach is not profitable for the military-industrial complex, and did not fit in with the aspirations of the neocons. However, such an approach would cost far less than the hundreds of billions we are currently spending.
Assuming the military budget could be cut in half (or more), this would free up hundreds of billions of dollars a year to be spent on taking care of our own country. Whether it’s subsiding free university education for all, re-tooling our industrial economy to become clean, green and regenerative, or to provide positive, life-affirming social services to all US citizens, the choice should be ours to make. And when the facts are laid bare, most US citizens would support such a shift. Have you ever heard of a truly solid argument why we shouldn’t provide universal health care, or free university education?
Given a generation, imagine how much stronger the US would be if we devoted our resources, not to aggressive global imperialist policies, but to strong domestic ones. Imagine how much more educated, healthy and wealthy we as citizens would be in such a place. Imagine how much good we could do for the world as we become net exporters again, not only of social democracy, but of real value, in terms of wealth, sustainable technologies, technological innovation, renewable energy and environmental restoration.