I simply don't understand why it is necessary for the USA to spend as much, or more, on our military as most of the rest of the planet *combined* spends on theirs.
It seems foolish and wasteful. And we pass up on a lot of other opportunities by misinvesting this amount of capital.
As an example, I went to a firefighting seminar in Iceland recently. The Icelanders had gear that was science-fiction compared to the "state of the art" gear I am issued here in the USA. They had much much lighter and smaller air tanks, they had heads-up displays inside their facepieces that showed a huge amount of useful data including thermal imaging, they had a digital radio system that was usable and understandable while the firefighter is on-air - including the ability to connect to people all over the country, or just to your immediate partner, or team, without fiddling with stupid little buttons. (Our radios here are so crappy that I use a length of climbing line to communicate with my partner inside buildings...) The gear I am issued is about $10,000, the gear they are issued is only about $18,000. It is *vastly* superior, and much safer and efficient. We have one old thermal imaging camera on each of our trucks, each of their firefighters has one built-into their gear, which alone is a *huge* difference....
We can't have these nice things here because of "budget".