I feel the defense spending of the US in terms of dollars is a bit inflated by the fact that the military industrial complex is in some respects a scheme to funnel tax dollars into the hands of a few. Not saying that the US military isn’t disgustingly strong. But I am pretty sure they don’t get as much utility per dollar as, say, USSR or China.
Not sure if that is better or worse for the US. I lean towards worse.
The only thing that matters at the end of the day is that resources and labor are not being used productively. The fundamental of any economy is ensuring that a sufficient percentage of available workforce is allocated towards productive work needed to make society run. This no longer appears to be the case as illustrated by the fact that quality of life continues to degrade. People are working harder, they have less spending power, less services available to them, and so on.
