In a Million-Dollar Minute

The Pentagon is currently charging US taxpayers approximately $1.9 million per minute, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year (366 in 2012). The American people are beginning to understand that this is a lot of money and that some of it might be better spent on other things. Y'think?

A glance at the graph showing the escalating per capita levels of US citizens' (not taxpayers' – we mean your two-month-old daughter and your 83-year-old grandmother) mandatory commitment to paying for nuclear weapons which are pointed at …. at … at the viability of the environment of planet Earth, is fairly overwhelming. We each, on average, pony up more than $4,000 each year to buy a range of services, largely devoted to forcing others to do what we want. How it breaks down:

Budget Breakdown for 2012

Since the average US citizen pays approximately $8,500 in federal income taxes each year (again, this is deceptively low, since there are far fewer actual income-tax-payers than there are citizens), this means that half your income taxes, roughly, go to some aspect of the military. We can't put everyone to work, but we can pay for US bases in most of the nations on Earth. We can't have Medicare for all, but we can clutter space with military satellites. We are cutting public education and leaving our children in the lurch while we deploy thousands of troops to … Australia?

There is no greater single problem source than our military spending. The Occupy movement could direct more focus to it.

• The more you spend on the military, the more you pollute.
• The more you spend on the military, the fewer jobs you create or maintain.
• The more you spend on the military, the less you can spend on the goods and services of life.

It is time. 2012 should be the year we get a grip on this. Resolved.