The+High+Price+of+Militarism+Reflection

Maintaining the huge military machine is not cheap. Every year the U.S. spends hundreds of billions of dollars on the military. Since 1948, the U.S. has spent more than $15 trillion to build up military might. Just how much is $15,000,000,000,000 worth? It adds up to more than the cumulative monetary value of al human-made wealth in the U.S. In other words, the government has spent more on the military over the last four decades than the value of all the factories, machinery, roads, bridges, water and sewage systems, airports, railroads, power plants, office buildings, shopping centers, schools, hospitals, hotels, houses, etc., in this country put together. Bridges, roads, sewers, and water systems are crumbling because the government fails to provide the money needed to maintain them.

Schools are run down and over crowded. In some inner-city high schools, 80% of the students drop out. More than a fifth of all adults cant read a job application of a street sign. Yet federal education funding per student has declined substantially over the last two decades.

Skyrocketing prices are causing a crisis in health care. 43 million people have no insurance and millions more have inadequate insurance. More and more people don't get the medical care they need because they cant afford it. Yet public hospitals are being closed and government has failed to enact any serious health care reform.

One-fifth of all expectant mothers don't receive pre-natal care. This is one reason the U.S. has the highest infant mortality rate in the developed world. Every 50 minutes, a child in the U.S. dies as a result of poverty or hunger. Yet congress has been exceedingly stingy in funding maternal and child health programs.

With rents rising and wages falling, millions of families are living on the verge of eviction. Millions of people end up living on the streets. Yet when it comes to funding for housing and homelessness, most of Washington seems to have adopted Reagan's attitude.

Drug addiction and alcoholism are crippling millions of people, and devastating families and whole communities. Yet there are not enough public treatment centers to handle even a fraction of those seeking help, and many centers are closing their doors for lack of funding.



With the $1,000,000,000 it takes to maintain just one one of those aircraft carriers for a year, you could..... build 17,000 homes for 67,000 people... or you could provide free parental care for 1,600,000 expectant mothers, saving thousands of babies... or enroll 384,000 more kids in the Head Start preschool program this year... or provide intensive drug or alcohol treatment for 333,000 people... or give 500,000 malnourished children in this country three meals a day for a year...or you could put down payment on a brand new aircraft...



 Our country is so focused on our national security and dilemmas abroad that our domestic problems are take a back row seat unnecessary military expenditures and funds. A paradigm shift in our thinking must occur before our domestic problems exceeding the point of resolution. Citation for all cartoon pictures on this page- Artist: Joel Andreas Date of Composition: 2004 Place Found: Addicted to War (book)