The massive amount of military spending the United States government takes part in should be no surprise to anyone. In fact, the US alone spent about 700 billion dollars on military spending in 2016. To put that into perspective, that is more than the next 14 countries in the world combined. Also take in mind these next 14 countries together hold the vast majority of population in the world, while the US holds a small amount. So why does the United States spend so much on our military?
The answer is a very complex one, but if I were to make it short and vague, I would say that the majority of military spending is actually a way to buy influence. The threat of invasion or a full out total war is not the reason that the United States buys the best the world has to offer in defense. In reality our military is an extension of our credit in more ways than one. Credit in the monetary sense, where our currency and the value of our credit is backed by the largest military in the world, but also credit in the sense that it is very valuable to be one of our allies.
Our military is a roundabout way to signal to the world that messing with us economically or militarily is a bad idea and if all else fails, we can use brute force to get what we want. This might sound harsh, but it isn’t necessarily a bad thing in terms of what is best for a country. It very well may be that investing in our military has an economic benefit that is greater than investing into other areas. There of course is diminishing marginal returns for everything, so perhaps we are spending a large amount of excess, but some might argue we wouldn’t be in the economic position we are without the influence we have.
In a world where wars are being fought less in the grand scheme of things, there is still a very good use case for having a large and powerful military. Having a large military signals to the world that not only do we have internal stability but external stability in the way we influence our allies and enemies. Nations might give favor to us, not because they like us , but because they realize that we are a force to be reckoned with. Having the highest military spending in the world helps open doors to us that might have been otherwise inaccessible.
The best criticism of the military is probably how much extra spending is enough, but at the same time it is really hard to calculate the benefit each of us is getting. It is okay to not support the military, but there really is a broader reason it benefits the average citizen other than just plain protection. In an ever increasingly international world, influence perhaps is the most important commodity. Having the largest military not only increases our influence with the world, but increases our interests financially as well.
Thanks to @Elyaque for the badges