Originally Posted by
GogglesPisano
I don't see how infrastructure, defense ... are "subsidies." You get something in return for your money. Subsidies prop-up otherwise unprofitable sectors. In the case of farming/green industries, it's rent-seeking.
I'm sorry I just can't not reply to this. I have to present the idea that a dollar spent on defense is not automatically worth a dollar of return. The defense industry has A LOT of grift. They are always selling us overpriced high tech **** we don't need. That, and it suffers from the old lack of competition program, while there exists a revolving door of corruption. We're spending trillions on the F35 while they are looking to retire the cheap but effective A10. For some reason we need ULTRA expensive manned stealth bombers in a world of UAVs and long range missiles. They are already replacing the B2 with the B21 costing 700 million per unit. Seven hundred million PER JET. That has grift written all over it. Our military budget is 3 times bigger than Chinas, yet their military is bigger than ours. We have a system that's designed to funnel public money into private hands, and it mostly happens through the defense industry. It must be looked at more carefully than " welp, freedom isn't free".