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A comment on Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on our doorstep. Parent comment

Re:Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on ... by arethuza on Tuesday May 14, 2013 @06:28PM (#5708816)
EU countries spend roughly half the amount on defence that the US does. Given that the US spends an insane amount on its military that seems plenty enough to me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_of_the_European_Union

Possibly also worth mentioning the tens of billions of dollars (and many hundreds of lives) that countries like the UK have spent in fighting mainly US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Re:Come here and work on hard problems – except the ones on ... by cmdkeen on Wednesday May 15, 2013 @05:17AM (#5710922)
The USA spends around 18% of its GDP on healthcare already, which larger than any other big country, the Netherlands is next on 12%.

Given the military spend is 4.7% of US GDP it is patently untrue that military spending means that more couldn't be spent on healthcare. You could have a healthcare system that is 50% better than any other Western country, for everyone, just by reallocating the money already spent on healthcare.

Yes, money != outcomes, but it works roughly. Especially as there is so much low hanging fruit in the USA due to the shocking state of healthcare provision for the poor.

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