The Macro View
The Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex is alive and flourishing. This applies not just to the USA but to nearly every other republican democracy.
If your nation is an autocracy or oligarchy or mercantilist combination of the two, you don’t need to feed your draftees well. You don’t need to provide them housing comparable to the standards outside the military. You may or may not offer them health care during their time of service (perhaps only enough to keep them working for the time of their enlistment). You may not even need to train them to the highest standards or equip them with the tools to best protect them in combat. (An example: the Chinese draftees in the Korean War, only some of whom were issued rifles. The rest were to pick up the rifles of the dead or dying and continue the assault. The Chinese soldiers were following Mao Zhedong's theory of "man over weapons.")
If, on the other hand, you live in Israel, Canada, the United States, the UK, Australia, France or any of the other democracies of the world where the population is thought of as individuals rather than masses or classes, you need to spend the money to ensure your people are the best trained they can be and have the tools to defend themselves as capably as is possible. Equipment costs, in other words, begin at a higher baseline when each human life is considered precious. Is it “worth” $25,000 an hour to have a fast-burner respond to a surrounded SOF team on the ground? If you are one of those team members or their family, it sure as hell is.
The second factor in making democracies with parliaments and such spend more than they would absent their congresses: the Congressional-Military-Industrial Complex, with the emphasis on “Congressional.”
Stovepipes are dangerous to your wealth. If you buy only tech, only defense, only REITs, or only anything, it will add both volatility and risk. At Investor's Edge® I create portfolios that include many asset classes so our clients and subscribers can sleep well at night. To every thing there is a season.
