Buying shares in defense contractors is the only way to get your fucking tax dollars back.
Defense stocks haven’t been a big winner in over a decade. 2-5% roi since 2016.
Stock market is just exit liquidity for the rich.
You ain’t getting rich buying shares lol
All you can do is diversify your portfolio, try to mirror the world markets, and safely hoard your capital that way.
Or start your own business.
Depending on circumstance, if it fails you might even get the loan forgiven.
Capitalism, exploit or be exploited.
Or don’t?
What do you think stock ownership is?
VTSAX and chill baby
Oh it’s already perked up on just about every business and finance forum, people aping their shares into weapons and defense companies.
…might do the same, tbh.
Yea but it and big pharma I refuse to buy into on moral grounds, I don’t want to invest in killing people or intentionally not saving people if not profitable. A lot of my portfolio is consumer staples, blue chips that aren’t in the above groups, and green/nuclear energy etfs
Great governance! let’s allocate more taxes offshore, meanwhile the Pentagon failed a fifth consecutive audit last November, when it could only account for 39 percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets. Nevertheless, the military received $858 billion which is only 10% increase in the last omnibus spending bill, for the record this is not a partisan issue.
https://reason.com/2023/01/18/pentagon-cant-account-for-220-billion-of-gear-given-to-contractors/
And let’s not talk about the Feds 3.3 billion dollar spending spree on ridiculously expensive furniture during the pandemic.
The military industrial complex is a money sponge, the Fed cries inflation worries while misappropriating funds and the border wall is simply a distraction, these multifaceted spending bills have become an absurd slush fund source for both sides of the aisle.
The DoD would need another 2 million civilians to conduct a proper audit. The government is too small to accomplish it.
What time frame is that for?
If they had 2 million more bodies, would it get done in a year? 2 years? 5 years?
How long would it take with the people they have.
They shouldn’t get any budget increases until they can account for the vast majority of assets.
Every tank we make and lose track of, is a school full of hungry kids that could have been given lunch.
Every bomb that’s made and rusts in a warehouse is thousands of dollars that could be put toward housing the homeless.
Every plane that’s sitting in the boneyard in the desert could have payed for cancer treatments, or thousands of routine doctors visits for Americans.
Why do we keep giving the DOD more money every year, when they can’t even say where half of it is going, and when that money could be put towards real issues that people face every day in this country.
Our government has said every year for decades, that having a new goddamned floating airfield is more important than educating our children or feeding our hungry citizens. That having more tanks than the next guy is more important than providing shelter for millions. And when we ask where exactly all of this money has gone, how many more tanks do we really have, how many aircraft do we have, how many rifles, they just shrug and say they can find a third of it. It’s a farce.
4 years to train, 6 years for the audit. So about a decade.
If they only know where 35% is, they only need 35%, it sounds like.
how about linking israel aid to not committing war crimes
How about slaughtering non-combatents, is that a war crime?
It is! One that’s been committed repeatedly over the years by both the HAMAS and IDF.
Yes, well it seems that war crime was practised last weekend. Is there a reason why when you say war crime you tend to forget that part?
It’s amazing how some people can reduce everything in this world to black and white. Did I not just point out it’s been happening for the past several years? Yes, last weekend does happen to be part of the last several years, the last time I looked at my calendar.
So Hamas has slaughtered a thousand Israelis is the last several years? Sounds like that should be a bigger story. Maybe we should link our aid to Palestine to them not committing war crimes.
I think you’d get your point across better if you just came out and said which of the two groups of human beings you are okay with being slaughtered the most. Seems like you’re stopping short of making your actual point here and I can’t quite figure out why…
First I see people here justify vile terroristic acts with no regard what happens next. Then, as things progress, they start a word of the day club. Yesterday, it was genocide and today it’s war crimes. Stuff and nonsense.
This weekend Israel was hit with horrendous terrorism and there is no justification or moral equivalence. Israel has a duty to defend itself. It has declared war. Things will get a lot worse and armchair leftists will whine and render their clothes. But it’s war, and nobody likes it.
The dude youre responding to literally keeps saying neither group is justified in their war crimes and you keep accusing him of being okay with hamas commiting war crimes. Your brain is rotted dude. Just come out and say admit you like war crimes as long as Israel is doing them.
NO, the original comment was that Israel aid contingent on war crimes. I’m just trying to point out that this war really started with a war crime on Israel.
We should. Are you incapable of realizing people can be critical of both sides?
If Gaza didn’t have foreign aid they would no longer exist. It isn’t all Israel’s fault, development aid to the country has not always been used as intended, it is over populated due to lack of health care and religion, and must import everything much like a Caribbean island. NO industry developed, etc. Hamas uses it’s money to perpetuate crimes because they are ass clowns, it is international aid that keeps them going.
All the US foreign aid to Israel must be spent in US Companies. So, the lack of that aid would hurt the US as well as Israel. But, with their economic base they would be ok,
I’m all for that if we can link our Israeli aid to the same conditions.
“THEY COMMIT WAR CRIMES TOO WHY ARE YOU OKAY WITH THAT??” “Im not, neither group is justified in war crimes” “WHAT IF WE ONLY GAVE PALESTINE AID IF THEY DONT COMMIT WAR CRIMES HUH? HOWD YOU LIKE THAT??” “Yes I would like that” “YOU SUPPORT WAR CRIMES”
the dude you’re talking to has actual brain rot its insane
They’re asking biden to link aid to good behavior and you say that he should stop slaughtering non-combatents? It sounds like you’re trying to shift their opinion, but I can’t possibility see how that whataboutism would fool anyone.
First of all it’s Congress that would link, not Biden.
Second of all, we give aid to Palestine too,
Lastly, if you read the string you can see some answers to your questions.
If I read the string, I just see others showing how you are arguing in bad faith.
It is and Israel and Hamas are doing this. So we need to make sure the side that we support does not do it.
We still don’t even have a budget.
Through no fault of Biden’s.
The US government doesn’t serve its people.
All blocked by a few house republicans that didn’t like that their speaker didn’t default the country. In the senate a single person is literally preventing the military from doing its job and that’s a threat to national security.
The fact that such a small minority of the US Govt are able to hold the country hostage is proof that the govt is failing and not serving the people.
Sure it does. It’s just that a lot of the people are kind of assholes.
Actually a smart political move. Old Joe is smart as a fox.
I wouldn’t say he’s that smart, but he’s wise enough to surround himself with people who are. As opposed to his predecessor who wanted nothing more than to be the smartest person in the room.
he’s wise enough to surround himself with people who are
That’s like the only job of a president in a sane society
Politically he hasn’t missteped too often and seems to be able to handle large moves with aplomb.
Oof, tankies coming out the woodworks here
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Administration officials also said the request would aim to address the strain that providing additional military support for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan would put on the Pentagon’s stockpiles, the sources said, by asking for money to build more weapons.
Biden said Tuesday that “when Congress returns, we’re going to ask them to take urgent action to fund the national security requirements of our critical partners.”
Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the Office of Management and Budget is drafting the supplemental request.
The White House and some key lawmakers have been discussing linking Ukraine and Israel aid.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, has said he’s open to a package that includes aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, as well as funding for additional security at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Biden administration officials have held multiple briefings for lawmakers this week, including with Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Acting Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Sasha Baker, and Morgan Muir, the Deputy Director for Mission Integration at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
The original article contains 261 words, the summary contains 180 words. Saved 31%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
Where are all the tank and bullet factory jobs? Are those communities thriving?
Lima Army Tank Plant, Lima Ohio. It produces about 11 tanks a month and it’s been the same for 20 years. It’s not doing better or worse, just steady. General Dynamics Corp. stock is actually lower ($238) than a year ago ($248).
And then the tanks wind up rotting in the desert unneeded.
Ever since ww2 the US military has had a general philosophy of “better to have it and not need it” due to underfunded production and R&D leading up to ww1 and then again during the depression.
Also the only thing rotting in the desert are plastics cause of UV, even cloth will last a decade and a half. Reminder folks’ll put new fluids in a car and it’ll start right up in areas a lot of these tanks are stored. I imagine the same is true for most of the mothballed shit.
All over, and very much so
Stop funding foreign wars and use our tax dollars for things we need. It’s time for universal healthcare and free higher education. Let Europe clean up their own back yard for a change. This is just another way to funnel our money into the pockets of their buddies in the military industrial complex. Stop giving endless handouts to Israel or any other country. How the fuck can we afford this with a national debt in the trillions? Till every American has shelter and food security turn the goddamn spigot off. Quit draining us dry while we need it here at home. Try requesting something for your own fucking people for a change.
Umm… do they transfer money now? Usually they transfer weapons produced by Americans paid for by Americans.
That’s the same thing that has been going on for decades, only now it’s not American soldiers who do the shooting.
Yeah, I think there are too many people that don’t understand this. Its not like there is money changing hands.
The money is changing hands, it just doesn’t touch the beneficiary.
Nothing happens in us without at least two rich dude turning a profit…
If they can’t get profit, nothing happens
The money goes from the US Treasury to Raytheon (for instance).
Munitions manufacturers like Raytheon have shareholders. The weapons they manufacturer, by contract, can only be sold to the US. That’s because the US paid for their development to begin with. Yes, they do make money. But, having worked government contracts before, it may not be as much as you think. A lot of times the government has difficult requirements that has to be built into the end cost.
US procurement is a corrupt clown show.
Military contractors overcharge the Pentagon on almost everything the Department of Defense buys each year.
This has been a known fact for decades into he circle and it is so bad that main stream media is covering it.
Not really sure what you are smoking but that shit must be real good or the money is right for this brain dead take lol
Ever work on government RFPs? Ever win one? Ever take it from cradle to grave? Ever watch the development money flow? It’s not easy, and yes, you too get paid. There isn’t giant margin on government c9ntract, but the work is steady.
I’ve done all that and you’re dead wrong.
Can you people please stop saying this as though the equipment we send to them is worthless?
Even if it’s already built, it’s still valuable and giving it away just means a defense contractor got richer at the expense of American taxpayers.
I’m happy for my tax dollars to fund the bullets that shoot Russian soldiers, and the companies that make them.
I’m not “you people”, and I’m far from supporting this.
But I hate misinformation, and this money is used to push American industry, not given away. The end products are, but the money, aside from filling pockets of the defense contractors also supports American jobs.
From the point of American economy that’s preferable than, say, tax cuts for the rich.
The moral side of things is a different matter, but a moral argument cannot be supported with lies about economics. If anything that makes the moral position weaker.
The end products are, but the money, aside from filling pockets of the defense contractors also supports American jobs.
That’s the thing. This is money coming from American taxpayers to support defense contracts and jobs that don’t benefit the American people.
All of the money being spent to make weapons we give away could be better spent helping the American people. This way, their tax dollars are used for services that actually benefit them.
Tanks don’t benefit us unless we sell them or use them.
But now we’re in critic of the industrial military industry per se, not where those weapons are delivered to. And we’re far away from the claim whether America is sending money, because it isn’t.
My point, from the beginning, is that US arms can be sold. They are not worthless, and giving them away means taxpayers funded jobs that give no benefit to the American people and line the pockets of for-profit business owners.
weapons produced by Americans paid for by Americans.
only now it’s not American soldiers who do the shooting.
You’re trying to argue that it’s a win for the US because Americans aren’t using it. If the US sold its equipment instead of giving it away, you would have a point that it is good for the American economy.
My counterpoint, from the beginning, was that giving away equipment “just means a defense contractor got richer at the expense of American taxpayers.”
The taxpayer money that was spent on equipment we gave away could’ve been better spent on something that actually benefits the American people. It would still create jobs, but those jobs would be benefiting us instead of defense contractors and whoever we give our equipment too.
Lots of misconceptions here.
1)military industrial complex jobs employ hundreds of millions of Americans, so it’s not like we don’t get something for our money.
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most of the defense budget is spent on pay, pensions, training, maintenance, etc. Only about a third of the military budget is spent on weapons or weapons research and only a fraction of that goes to foreign wars. Meanwhile the maintenance of US nuclear weapons alone exceeds foreign the average annual military assistance spending.
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the national debt is irrelevant. It’s all imaginary. It will never be paid off and that’s fine. We could just say it is 0 tomorrow and it wouldn’t make a damn bit of difference in anyone’s life.
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the only reason every American doesn’t have healthcare, shelter, food security, and a home is simply that it is not profitable to do so. Capitalism is the problem, not foreign war spending. Even if we put 100% of our foreign war spending into these problems it wouldn’t be enough to fix even one of them. We have to tax the rich.
This is a roundabout argument for funding foreign wars, or, more specifically, exorbitant defense spending.
It’s more a statement that funding foreign wars has no negative effect on the economy and does not deprive Americans of any government services. Their morality or whether they are good policy is another discussion entirely.
1)military industrial complex jobs employ hundreds of millions of Americans, so it’s not like we don’t get something for our money.
This is what you, still, do not understand. All of the money spent on manufacturing weapons for other nations could be spent improving life for Americans here.
You would only have a point if these nations were paying for these weapons. Which they are not.
This is literally taxpayer money being funneled to defense contractors so they can give weapons away to nations like Israel. They have enough wealth to buy our weapons. We shouldn’t be giving them away for free while the Americans who paid for them go without higher education or health care.
There is not the political will to improve the lives of Americans. Half the country wants to eliminate Social Security, Medicare, Obamacare, public education, welfare, and basically all “entitlements”.
In 2022, the US has given $3.8 billion in military aid to Israel. What the US spends just on maintenance of its nuclear arsenal could fund Israel at that level for 20 years. Just one F-35 fighter costs about $30 billion.
All this is not touching on the reasons we give aid to other countries. In many cases the aid protects our economic interests and saves us money in the long run. Take Ukraine for example. The war is weakening one of our major military competitors, which means they are less of a threat to us and we do not need to maintain as many defenses against them.
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I’m sure the war in Ukraine will go away if we just quit funding it, right?
“Ah, peace!” - Enlightened centrists as Ukrainians are genocided.
That’s maybe an argument against more Iraq wars with their multi-Trillion-dollar price tags.
Sending money to help out an ally who just got attacked is just orders of magnitude away from being able to pay for higher education or Healthcare for everybody in the country, it’s like saying to buy a house with your avocado toast savings.
Ukraine? Sure, sort of.
Israel? Absolutely not. If they need more money, they can take it from their ruling class instead of our taxpayers.
There is no way at this point to get Republicans to agree to Ukraine funding without Israel funding too. Biden knows this. Sometimes you have to play politics to get your way. Israel doesn’t need our money, but it’s also a drop in the bucket in terms of the budget and Ukraine does need our money.
“sort of”?
Ukraine also has a ruling class that it could and should be pulling resources from.
It’s just not nearly as wealthy as Israel’s ruling class and Russia is a much more formidable foe, so I still support outside aid.
The US spends more per capita on healthcare than other OECD nations, and it’s not even close. The cost isn’t why we don’t have universal healthcare.
Of course it’s not. It’s a device used to control and keep us beholden unto our corporate overlords through job provided insurance.
Learn about the color of money in Congress. Certain funds are used for military support which is an agreement the United States has with various nations. In exchange for support in GWOT, the United States agreed to offer military aid to Ukraine in the event the nation was attacked. Ukraine was a vital logistical partner to the United States during GWOT.
The United States has a similar agreement with Israel.
It’s the foundation of global peace and diplomacy and to not fund such actions would lead to more violence and tragedies.
I know civics is rarely taught and when it is the class barely touches more than the basic concepts of government. It certainly doesn’t go into what the U.S. State Department does, but these agreements are why we have ambassadors throughout the world. They are our representatives who know these agreements word for word.
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