Look up who pays for NATO. Each member of NATO is supposed to put 2% of their GDP into defense. But every country in NATO puts in way less than 2% of their GDP while the US puts in way more than 2%. And since the US has a much higher GDP anyway, the US is paying for most of NATO. 73 percent, to be exact.
shareThat's exactly what I was thinking specially now with the "open borders policy" in Europe to radical muslim immigrants from ISIS and Syria. United States has since WWII be the bodyguard of the free democratic world. Europe had it really good thanks to United States.
I don't think America (United States) is a *beep* as Michael Moore suggest it is.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" ALBERT EINSTEIN
I looked it up. After about 5 min I realized that you are flat out lying. Well, less than 5 min actually. For example, France, Turkey and the UK put in 2.2% of the GPD as military expenditures. Not included in those numbers though is the number of soldiers, of whom the US has precisely the percentage corresponding to its population percentage in the NATO. Clearly the 3.5 million soldiers are a very large fraction of the military expenditures within NATO, but hard to count in $ and thus not included in the numbers you are referring to.
shareThere's a difference in lying and getting the facts wrong. You don't know which one it is!
shareWrong. Greece, Poland, Estonia, and UK are the only European countries that meet or exceed the 2% of GDP defense expenditure. France is only at 1.8%, as of 2016. Turkey is at 1.7%. USA is at a whopping 3.6%. NATO admits it has an over-reliance on the US. US defense is mammoth, other NATO members know that they can be free riders on the US defense budget. They know that Russia is not going to invade anytime soon because the US wouldn't let it happen.
re:
>>European countries can afford socialism
Europe is "socialism"? That would be news to big, profitable, fiercely competitive capitalist enterprises like Mercedes, Nestle, BASF, and BMW.
re:
>>because we pay for their defense
No, actually, China does. (China pays the bills of the bankrupt, broken, former world power called the United States).
Incidentally, a nation like Germany has the money, the technology, the advanced manufacturing base, and the know-how to field a powerful military. The problem is, for historical reasons, the rest of Europe would fiercely oppose it if Germany began to build a powerful military. Indeed, the Germans themselves see little need. The nation has a good quality of life and it achieves virtually everything it needs without resorting to a big military. Today's Germans would rather trade with the rest of the world than try to dominate things militarily.
Americans think that global power comes from a strong military. I'd argue that that is an outdated view. In the 21st century, you've got to have things like a strong economy, a strong manufacturing base, great schools, etc. if you want to maintain global power.
Currently, the U.S. is just doing it with smoke and mirrors. The U.S. is trillions of dollars in debt to the rest of the world. The day that the likes of China decide to stop paying our bills, we'll see a big reduction in the U.S. military (and in U.S. global power). That day isn't far off.
You're basically agreeing with me. Germany doesn't see a need to have a big defense budget because they are allied with a country whose defense budget dwarfs theirs. US defense: 650 billion. German defense: 40 billion. Even if they doubled their defense, that wouldn't even come close to mattering compared to the US defense. And the US defense is on their side. In NATO, if one country goes is attacked, we all are. That's the whole point of the NATO agreement.
It's very clear from your comment that you just don't know very much about anything. The relationship that the US has with China is not a relationship where they pay for our stuff. China owns 7% of the US debt. US citizens, pension funds, and banks own the majority of it.
And you say that in the 21st century, strong military isn't important. Did it ever occur to you that the reason why prosperity cannot be achieved through militarism is because the US has such a powerful military that if someone got uppity and tried to aggressively expand territory through war, the US would stop them? China and Japan don't get along. Why doesn't China just TAKE OVER Japan? They absolutely could. But they won't, because a fight between China and Japan is really a fight between China and the US and that is a fight they don't want. Why doesn't China finish their century-long civil war and get Taiwan under PRC rule? Because the US won't let them. Not because the US has great schools, we don't. Not because we have strong manufacturing, because we don't have that either. BECAUSE WE HAVE AN INSANELY POWERFUL MILITARY.
Yeah right thats a american way to think of it. Ignorance is bliss...
shareYeah, I'm sure that if the US were not in NATO and NATO members could not rely on the massive US defense budget, that wouldn't at all change how much they spend on welfare benefits. I'm sure that Germany would still have all their social programs if the US made no promise to support them if Russia invades.
shareRegardless their GDP and how much they spend, there are several countries that contributes more to the war in i.e. Afghanistan, compared to USA.
And you should really appreciate that we helped in your wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
You're a typical american hypocrite.... Tell me, how many of Americans work in your industrial-military complex? More than a million. How many in espionage? More than 150 thousand. How many of your progressive technologies were a spawn of initial military financing? Loads, including the internet. Now, what you are saying is telling us Europeans that we can afford to be fair to our fellow citizens because you're protecting us? With what? Your government (each and every one since the Bush senior) destabilized Middle East and consequently the Mediterranean, meaning the cradle of civilized world, meaning Europe. And meanwhile your country (or to be more exact your establishment elite) is getting rich by pumping natural resources from the countries you invaded, making them poor and not possible for living and consequently forcing Europe into a state of imigrant crises that could in the worst case scenatio end up in a terrible wake of nationalism and racism. Why thank you for your export of knowledge, but no thank you, you're offficially a Middle ages country, now with a blonde crazy king on a throne.
shareHow do you think your governments were ever able to recover after World War II? It was thanks to Marshall aid and the nuclear security blanket offered by the United States.
While the countries of Europe began building their welfare states, the United States stationed tens of thousands of troops, aircraft, tanks, and nuclear missiles to counter any potential attack by the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact.
We should have started cutting our defense budget in 1991, but let's not pretend that the European economic miracle was pulled off solely by the sweat, tears, and sheer tenacity of the people of the continent and nothing else.
I pretend to work because the Soviet government pretends to pay me.