Spending must align with culture and values
Large scale spending objectives can only be maintained when supported by cultural practice and social values
This video is completely wrong. You can’t just put X dollars into an activity and expect it to work.
You need a culture and society that supports those activities. It would require HUGE social change for the U.S. to support space programs at the scale of the current military budget.
Besides, I don’t think space programs are worthwhile at that scale.
The U.S. has a huge military budget because it is a global police force(at best). While the U.S. doesn’t unilaterally dictate the rules of global society, it exercises disproportionate influence.
Military at such a grand scale can be valuable for maintaining a global society. I don’t fault the U.S. Government for having a huge military and being active in the world. I do fault them for disrespecting the needs and interests of most countries, and horrible practices when it comes to international relations and diplomacy, etc. The U.S. is only a democratic country domestically, not internationally. I fault both our populace and leaders for being unaware of our international impact and the way finance interests unduly influence policy.
Ideally, the U.S. wouldn’t need to be be so active on the world stage, and other countries would play a more important role in international policing. Our right hands and left hands would not contradict ourselves, through financing both international drug trade and international drug wars. Latin America should be especially angry about the U.S. impact on the western hemisphere.
Currently, the culture and values in the U.S. align with a huge military. That’s why it works for the U.S. to spend so much money this way. But I think there are better ways to help society. The current military programs and the culture behind it are problematic.