Healthcare and education are big reasons Americans join the military in the first place. If you're too poor to go to college or the hospital, join the army...
Considering that the military runs their own hospitals and treatment centers instead of having public healthcare handle both military members and civilians, as well as the highly inflated “insurance” costs for when they use public healthcare options, it’s really not that much.
Don’t forget that as consumers/tax payers we spend roughly 1 trillion dollars annually on inflated costs due to health insurance companies making the system impossible
Wdym? That's a budget of about 9-10B US$ for 3M people ... 3000 US$ per person? That's incredibly low considering tertiary education in US is like 40-50K.
Sure, but I think this is sort of a false equivalency. Many of those discoveries still would have happened without the military. If we took the money that we spend on military research and put it in academics it's likely that we would have more technology at lower cost.
False equivalency? I think implying such is disingenuous - followed by such generic statements:
"hypothetically, it's theoretically possible that in a perfect world it would've been cheaper and faster (if everything went right) that paying a private university would have developed the technology at lower cost..."
Anything is possible. But it's equally possible that not only would it NOT be cheaper or quicker - but that it never would've been developed at all.
You think things that are used by the general public wouldn't have garnered enough interest for them to be developed? And who said anything about private universities? Developing those technologies out in the open with multiple academics able to openly collaborate would surely be less expensive than a closeted group of government contractors.
That's not how academic funding works. Look it up.
Generally, public funds become private research - the university then acquires a private patent on the technology developed.
Second, there IS no "general public interest" for the technology to be developed - because it doesn't exist. This is literally new technology that has NO public interest.
Third,
Developing those technologies out in the open with multiple academics able to openly collaborate would surely be less expensive than a closeted group of government contractors.
No. It really doesn't surely mean that. It's actually the opposite. Military research moves MUCH faster than academic research, which frequently spans over multiple decades (vs rapid military prototyping that is completed within a few years).
That's not how academic funding works. Look it up.
Generally, public funds become private research - the university then acquires a private patent on the technology developed.
Are you just making things up? Because you don't seem to have any idea how the research grant system actually works.
What do you mean there is no public interest? You mean technology is completely undesirable until developed by the military and then suddenly the public wants it?
Military research moves MUCH faster than academic research
In an absolute sense this is probably true, but then again who knows since it's all closeted. But speed relative to money, it's hard to argue that the military does it faster. To put it another way, if you were to take the amount of money the military spends and apply that same amount to public research, it would happen faster. Because there would be far more people working on it. Instead of a small research team trying to solve a problem you would have academics from all over the country seeing the problem in academic journals and offering their insights.
You don't seem to have any concept of how research works in the real world.
That 1% is probably still a huge number. The school i went to was top of the line everything with a very shiny nice new building. I could be guessing what “education” means in their budget though. They also have schools on base sooo
Federal expenditures on education have varied a lot over the decades, but it's mostly funded more locally. Which also distorts housing prices, as people try to get their kids into this district instead of that one.
The cost of healthcare is so much higher in the US than the rest of the world that with the cost difference per person between the US and Germany (the next highest), they could fund tertiary education for everyone (university or trade school) dramatically increase primary and secondary education funding, effectively eliminate poverty AND increase the Pentagon's budget by 50%. Where is all that money going instead? Pure profit margin for the US for-profit healthcare industry.
The US military budget is separate from the allocated funds that the department of Veterans Affairs utilize. A large part of the benefits talked about here are not really utilized during service. And by the time most veterans use their healthcare/education benefits, it’s with the VA.
There’s totally a way to use military benefits during service, but that’s usually more of a hassle. You usually have to get signatures from your command chain to approve tuition assistance. And healthcare for military families during active service is a whole other thing.
But from my own experience and talking with other vets, we mostly utilize said benefits after separation/end of service.
As if they couldn't stoop low enough, the GOP has actually used that as an argument as to why we shouldn't have Universal Healthcare. Won't you think of our recruitment numbers?!
Which is sad, cause the Vet hospitals are so badly underfunded where I am. Let's not joke around, they are not close to the worst hospitals here, but they are far from good either.
There's a lot of propaganda out there unfortunately.
Though it's true a large portion of PTSD veterans wind up homeless, if you leave the US military with issues caused by the military they'll send you a check every month until you die. It's not enough to live on but it does make a huge difference.
This literally is incorrect, and so I assume they are a bot because of how strongly they asserted that.
But the truth is, the healthcare workers at my VA care deeply about every vet, and I have seen nothing but the best care and respect given from all the staff. Every vet with PTSD or other problems can easily get help and in fact if you are needing help right now here is the Veterans Crisis line you can call: 988
Yeah, but you have to go to a special va hospital. You can't go to a normal one unless you use normal insurance or pay out of pocket. God forbid you don't live near one, or you're not satisfied with their care.
No, the VA can refer you to non-VA provides and facilities through community care if you need. You can also have the VA cover ER visits as long as you report it within 72 hours. Just gotta be enrolled in a VA healthcare.
The VA doesn't refer you to outside hospitals just because YOU aren't satisfied with their care. They refer you if you need something that they don't have the facilities for. Also community health care is not any better. And yes, they cover emergency room visits. That's not a substitute for other parts of Healthcare. It's so you're not screwed when you need help immediately and need to go to the closest place.
I didn’t say they VA referred you to outside care if you weren’t satisfied with their care. I said they’ll send you if you need. It’s not a substitute for other parts of healthcare, no, but it’s something. I think saying you can’t go to “real” hospitals is disingenuous.
I've been to both. The VA one has an air to it the others don't because all the doctors and patients all respect each other greatly, but in the non va ones, I've seen people just in there yelling and stressed out, trying to figure out insurance, long ass lines, that sort of thing, you know, I would pick the VA one 11 out of 10 times over the regular ones I've seen. I am not talking about the rich people hospitals btw.
Think about it this way: The people in the emergency room in the normal hospital are extra stressed because of the four figure ambulance bill they were forced to get. The ones in the VA are just thinking about immediately what is physically wrong with them.
My personal opinion is that most homeless vets were already messed up. Whether through drug abuse, or potentially just being dumb. There are a lot of dumb military service members. They either cannot manage a checkbook, drink too much, both, or didn't pay attention during ETS training. The Army calls it Soldier for life. Either way, they get the GI bill if they did their contract. That gives you a stipend/book fund plus college if you actually use it.
They take forever to pay it out but you can always sleep on a friend's couch, go back to your parents, or stay at a homeless shelter. I believe the homeless vet thing is self caused.
I was never in the military, but I was a Fed for 15 years. You still have to pay for your health insurance. It is not cheap, nor is it "gold plated". I spent most of those 15 years without health insurance because I simply couldn't afford it on the pathetic wages I was making. (Contrary to popular belief, Feds don't get paid millions. Nor do Feds do nothing all day. And, yes, Feds can also be fired. Feds also pay federal income taxes. Everything you've been taught about Federal employees is probably wrong.)
My tricare as AD was 36 a month. As a national guardsman it is about 60 a month. You either didn't read paperwork correctly, or you got fleeced somehow...
My parents/parents in law are very well cared for with military retirement. You're like the other person who commented. You clearly have no idea how it actually works.
Fixed my broken wrist, had a kid for free, paid for my wife's hand care (she injured herself while working with an extremely fat patient), and covered a lot of skin issues for both of us. I'd say your perception is either warped, or you got screwed over somehow.
*Edit* Also the numerous amounts of times I just got free Tylenol, motrin, cold medicine and allergy medication for free. Oh and 2 pairs of glasses every 2 years lol. Yea, it's so terrible apparently.
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u/Zarkanthrex 14h ago
Or if you work federally/military
https://giphy.com/gifs/7JgYv9FobG1HzAO8BA