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It's all a diversion to placate the southern masses until the invasion force is given the go-ahead to strike.

When I compared the military spending and populations of our respective countries I found that the average Candian spends 25 cents a year on the military while the average American spends about 1 dollar.  Interesting.  Thats by popoulation, not total power.

The military budget of the U.S. is about $400 billion. And I'm pretty sure that there aren't 400 billion people living here.

*looks outside...sees nobody*

Nope, no 400 billion people here.

it gets weirder in here by the minute

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that the US military budget is greater than the next 20 nations combined.

Interesting numbers there KingFred. It raises some interesting questions. South vs  North Korea, India vs Pakistan and, most importantly, why does Singapore even bother?

Given those numbers doesn't that mean by the next budget the US will be more than all of the countries on the list!

Ya, these guys are right.  Our millitary budget is some place around $350 billion. Moreover, the US population is some place around 280 million right now.

(on a side note) Looking back to an old political sociology class I took in college, I remember hearing that its actually possible for the military to spend more then the budget allows. Due to the fact that parts of our military are profitable, we can temporarily divert money from programs such as social security; use that money for military spending;  and later put that money back into those programs with the profits earned from military research, weapons sales, and other endeavors.

Theoretically, "creative" (although not necessarily legal) accounting can bump military spending past the 500billion dollar mark while not looking as if it has done so.

Now... don't hold me to anything on this one. I'm just vaguely referencing someone else's senior thesis. Just food for thought as usual.

Wow, their about to raise their tuition about as much as it's going to cost me for my degree I'm going for... (just applied for the course)

It's about $2 800 CDN, with all the building/etc/etc fees involved.... of course plus books. It's a two year degree, that I'm taking (hopefully, still haven't heard back) in one year (3 semesters)... and that's all she cost. I've already paid off my University loans, and have enough for the course... now all I have to do is hope I don't waste it all when I go on my vacation mode for the summer months to get away from... something I don't know.

The military budget in the US is much much much too large, especially since such a large amount of this money doesn't even get to the places it's supposed to go.  US service men and women are living in near poverty in some areas, so it's obviously not paying their salaries, and the government forces the military to develop useless crap that they can never get right, such as the Osprey (sp?).  This development program was nearly cancelled because it's a stupid idea, yet the government just keeps wasting more money on it.  Why?  "We can't let all the money we've put into it so far just go to waste!"  So lets waste more!  We don't need half of the destructive power that we have.  The money we spend on a fleet of aircraft that will never fly could fund a federal health care program!  This is disgusting.

So where that "25 cents" number jkahless gave came from, I have no idea.

I smurfed up with the math.  Sory.

No prob. But what that ratio says about military spending is unclear. The bottom line, that the US spends $396 BILLION while Canada spends a comparatively paltry $7.7 Billion still doesn't explain what the point you were trying to make might have been.

Canada is rather small compared to the US, population wise, so obviously they'll be spending less, they just don't have that sort of resource, nor are they as "Military crazy" as the US is. Even if every Canadian paid out the same $1409 per person, that would still only add up to a tenth of the US budget, about $42B, since they have a tenth of the population.

So let me ask: what were you trying to point out? I didn't get it...

He was trying to point out that Canada pays less per capita for the military than does the US.

So again, what was the point? I just wanted to know where he was going with his point.

Pretty much nothing after that... hence my first post in this thread... it's known, and I don't think we need to spend more on military (or as much as the US per capita)... I'd rather have our heath care system...