this post was submitted on 08 Sep 2025
318 points (99.7% liked)

United States | News & Politics

3286 readers
1277 users here now

Welcome to !usa@midwest.social, where you can share and converse about the different things happening all over/about the United States.

If you’re interested in participating, please subscribe.

Rules

Be respectful and civil. No racism/bigotry/hateful speech.

No memes.

Post news related to the United States.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] stickly@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Your cost per person is probably off. National Guard is supposed to be supplemental, so they call up people from their normal life for higher pay. If keeping a standing army is cooking at home then calling up the National Guard is Uber Eats, not a big deal if occasional but not very sustainable.

And a ton of money is spent on the military, not even necessarily run of the mill corruption. Keeping those giant knock off Batmobiles running daily probably requires special servicing and parts, procurement and logistics have specific markups, long term lodging and food were unplanned and thus expensive, etc...