© Unknown/KJN
I won't delve into Samuelson's complicated formula for arriving at his scary conclusion because, well, it is complicated, a point that even he concedes:
"The only way to find out is to estimate our and their defense budgets, using an unconventional methodology called "purchasing power parity" (PPP). To do that, Congress should create a task force of experts that would examine Russia's and China's defense spending and compare it with our own."So, I'll leave his main point to that task force of experts. I do wish, however, to confront the other major point in Samuelson's analysis, one to which he, like so many others in Washington, D.C., is obviously oblivious: that U.S. spending on the military and the rest of the national-security establishment is for defense. That is one great big delusion and falsehood.
Comment: War has become the default for American foreign policy and to maintain it requires 'unconditional' support from both the politicians and the public. America has chosen the most difficult path for the least constructive returns. Blind faith, detachment, go-with-the-flow...are now aspects of the war psyche necessary to sway millions of tax payers to accept, without question, the war machinery of the MIC where lives are expendable and profit is the bottom line. If we, the people, try to change it...will it turn on us?