One of the things we do is create problems. It seems to be in our nature. Sometimes the problems are small ones, but at other time they can be so serious they could end the world. If an intelligent non-human was watching us, he or she might conclude we are not an intelligent race at all, just a dangerous one. Why would people who all share the same world arm themselves with weapons which are capable of destroying all life on it? Does this seem like an intelligent move to anyone? Yet look at where we are. Several countries have armed themselves with powerful nuclear weapons which everyone is trying to improve to make them even more powerful. Surely if an outside force was watching this they might even think we have all lost our minds. One of the biggest, if not the biggest industry today is making weapons to kill people.

We are holding ourselves back by doing this since all the money we are pouring into weapons development if applied to projects to help humans would advance our technology tremendously. When we buy or develop weapons, price is no object. We let companies increase the price while building the weapons without batting an eye, but at the same time we cut funds for meals for the poor and school lunches among other things. Politicians tell us we can’t afford to keep these programs, because they are too expensive. Wars in 2015 were estimated to cost 13.6 trillion dollars in purchasing power. The United States is no stranger to spending money on weapons and we possess the single most expensive weapon on earth, which is the aircraft carrier USS Gerald Ford. It is said to cost over 12 billion dollars, but some say it was only about 11.5 billion dollars. I am telling you this so I don’t get accused of exaggerating.

In some years the US was spending almost half of the amount of money spent on the military and weapons for the entire world. It seems weapons builders are trying to push the cost envelope to see how much they can get away with. In the case of the F-22 Raptor an advanced stealth fighter, the cost was 79.2 billion dollars for a fleet of these planes which cost $211.6 million each. This plane is said to be the most advanced fighter in the world, but it begs the old question, are we better off with one plane which costs $211.6 million or with ten which cost 21.1 million apiece? Remember almost any plane can be equipped with the latest electronics. In almost every area of defense we have the most expensive weapons. Virginia class submarines costs 2.688 billion dollars apiece. They are great submarines, but there is a new player in town and it is a special type of diesel submarine which is undetectable under water and can stay submerged for weeks. These would be great to add to the fleet and save a lot of money. I am not talking about replacing our nuclear subs, just adding more subs at a more reasonable price. It has been said these submarines can be built for only 200 million dollars apiece. This means we could build 13 of these submarines for the cost of one Virginia class sub, yet we don’t hear any news about this. A Virginia class submarine surrounded by a group of these subs would be in a lot of trouble.

Why does every weapon we develop have to cost more than one anyone else has? It is because we are being drained of money by the arms industry which has some of the most powerful lobbyists in congress. When a bill is passed it is always an eye opening process to see what “campaign contributions” went to which legislator. I did this when the congress allowed companies to sell our browser data. I don’t know if every legislator got a contribution from companies, but the list seemed to have all or almost all members of congress on it along with the amounts of money they received. Our system is broken and what is even far worse, there is no moral compass anymore, so as long as the money flows it doesn’t seem to matter what the project is which the companies want approved.

The missiles which were fired at Syria the other day were estimated to cost about 800,000 dollars each by one authority, but another said they cost more like 1,300,000 each. We fired 59 of them. If we agree on them costing about one million dollars each we are looking at 59,000,000 dollars. This makes companies very happy since every missile we fire will need to be replaced. Munitions which are made to be expended are a very profitable commodity. Companies are always replacing them and increasing the cost for them. We spend billions of dollars on bullets alone.

The amount of money we spend on defense is staggering. No other nation on earth comes near it. It is hard to estimate the true cost of munitions, military weapons programs and anything else related to the military since so much money is hidden in what is known as black projects. These projects are so secret even congress isn’t allowed to know what is going on. This means huge amounts of money can be spent without any oversight. I guess in the long run this might not matter since the oversight by congress is almost non-existent anyway.

We are putting ourselves into a hole we may never be able to dig our way out of. There are some countries which believe they do not have to defeat us in a war, because they can just sit back and watch us go bankrupt. Somehow those who control the financial markets seem to have prevented this, but if countries like China ever demanded their money which we owe them, we would be in a lot of trouble and it could start a war.

Our quest for ever more expensive weapons has affected the rest of the world and today we have an arms race going on. While we can’t be outspent, there are areas where some of these countries have developed some very advanced weapons. They are spending more of their budgets on weapons than ever before. It is too bad no one really has the courage to reduce weapons development and give the rest of us a better life with the money which would be saved.