We spend so much on the military exactly so we don't have to send young Americans in to meat grinders.

How many Americans have been killed in the past 20 years during military operations? Approximately 10,000. If that's all the young American deaths we get for trillions of dollars in spending, that is not a great bang for your buck at all. Hell, more than twice that amount died in one day on September 17, 1862.

> more than twice that amount [10,000] died in one day on September 17, 1862.

In case anyone is curious, this refers to "the bloodiest day in all of American history" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Antietam where it appears fewer than 8,000 people died.

Oops, I mistook the casualty figure for the total deaths. In any case, even if "only" 3500 people died in 1 day, that is still a rate approximately 4000x higher than the average rate over the past 20 years.

Yes, but their deaths pay for a global hegemony, a friendly trade climate, and access to other countries' natural resources.

Also, you're forgetting all the money that flows directly back into your states, through infrastructure spending, federal services, federal share of funding state services, etc. (Which is a convoluted way of moving money from 'have' states into 'have-not' states.)

Military expenditure is only 3.7% of GDP.