Quote Originally Posted by HipoGear View Post

As far as the mess disappearing. Look at the defense budget. It should probably be renamed the "lets ensure our war profit" budget.
Well ... let's stop an noodle it through for a moment. We have a large defense budget and i guess you could say that we are the number one global military superpower.

Okay ... the next question is what are we doing with our military ?

As it stands right now we're in the role of acting as the global police force. We're protecting not only ourselves but many other nations as well.

Take Australia for instance: They've done a pretty good job of keeping a balanced budget. Their government also provides a lot of services to it's citizens. It would be fair to say that they have a Socialist economic system. There really ain't no such thing as a free lunch. All of those services have to be paid for but the question is .... who is footing the bill ?

First off ... it's the citizens. Taxes are fairly high there. They take a good chunk of what you make every week.

Secondly ... They've been selling off their natural resources to the Chinese. The Chinese need those vital resources to keep their manufacturing base in production. In the real world you sometimes have to take vitally important natural resources from your neighbor by force if your survival depends on it.

Thirdly ... consider the global projection of American military power abroad. The Australian government is so heavily invested in it's social programs that it's military isn't capable of defending itself from bullies that would invade their country and take their stuff. We just re-ratified our treaty with their government to maintain AMERICAN military bases on their soil.



They're kinda riding on our dime aren't they ?

They've got a fairly balanced budget and ours is a mess.

What's the right thing to do here ?