当我度假时，我做了一场噩梦：突然之间，包括我们在内的世界上每个富裕国家都誓言每年在防御上花费数十亿美元。这将使纳税人绝对炸弹。我们为什么要这样做？
对每个国家/地区出现了一些新的生存威胁？还是担心几个国家可能会受到外国入侵的境地，但是，由于我们不知道这是哪个国家，所以我们所有人都在武装牙齿，以防万一？ srcset =“ https://static.ffx.io/images/qunzoom_0.175%2C$ multiply_0.9788%2C$ ratio_1.5%2C$ Width _756％2C $ x_27％2C $ y_0/t_crop_custom/q_86％2CF_AUTO/A1C792DE44710127264C41DC3835D27BA27BA2C1829C， https://static.ffx.io/images/qunzoom_0.175%2c$ multiply_1.9577%2c$ ratio_1.5%2C$ WIDTH_75 6％2C $ x_27％2C $ y_0/t_crop_custom/q_62％2CF_AUTO/A1C792DE44710127264C41DC3835D27BA27BA2C1829C 2x“高度=“ 494”宽度=“ 740”/> Simon Letch
让我们假设我们花了很多钱在军备上，而不是诸如健康，教育和气候变化，以及没有发生的忧虑，以及没有发生任何努力。这会证明这笔钱花费了，还是完全浪费？我们为一个聚会准备了一个聚会，但没人来。我们永远不会知道。
毫不奇怪，这种奇怪的行为是对唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump）的宣告，他告诉我们和他的其他理由盟友，我们不再应该依靠美国的防御盾牌，而是在我们自己的安全上花费更多。
最初，他的需求使我们的需求从全国的2％升至3％的年龄，这是一定数28％的28％，这是28％的28％。这将使国防支出增加一半以上，几乎与联邦在公立医院支出一样多。
，但随后特朗普的国防部长皮特·海格斯（Pete Hegseth）表示，东南亚国家应该将其支出提高到国民收入的5％。
class =“”>美国总统唐纳德·特朗普（Donald Trump），对，美国国防部长皮特·海格斯（Pete Hegseth）在6月的北约峰会上。 It’s remarkable how few people have remarked on what a strange way this is to decide how much more needs to be spent. You’d think the defence people would decide it based on the cost of the extra weapons and programs they judged to be needed to complete our security. Assessing it as a fraction of national income makes you wonder if the goal is spending for spending’s sake.或者，也许他们计划向敌人发射小数点。 但是谁是敌人？哪个国家准备入侵我们？我们一直被告知世界变得更具威胁性，但是从我们的角度来看，我看不到它。 It may be true that there are more wars at present, but how do they threaten us? “Here’s a thought: does having every country armed to the teeth deter war, or make it more likely?” There’s been another breakout in the Middle East, but how are we affected?它将如何传播到Oz？ Or do we need to increase our capacity to intervene on the side of the Palestinians? Then there’s Russia’s long-running attempt to take over Ukraine.进展不佳，看来，俄罗斯生病的经济大大消耗。 Europe has lived in fear of attack from Russia since World War II – that’s what NATO used to be about. But let’s assume Russia’s glorious victory over Ukraine is near at hand.他们会不会浪费时间去其他一些国家？即使是，绿野仙踪在他们的小名单上有多高？ 也许印尼人可以随时打开我们？啊，对我们国防专家中真正偏执的真正偏执的威胁是中国。那些坏事随时可能会追随我们。和证明？中国正在建立军队。除了他们渴望入侵我们外，还有什么其他可能的原因？ 好吧，我能想到一些。也许他们这样做是因为，如果您想成为超级大国，则需要打动与军队规模的人。带美国。 It likes to intervene in other people’s wars, but no one thinks it’s gearing up to take over any other country (barring Canada and Greenland, of course). So why does the US spend far more on defence that many other countries combined?因为这就是超级大国的作用。 当然，中国可能正在建立国防军，因为它准备与美国进行战争。也许美国出于同样的原因保持强大。 If so, that’s a reason for us to keep well out of the way, not for us to increase our own defences. It’s worth noting that Trump’s instruction to his erstwhile allies that they’ll get less protection from the US and should shoulder more of the burden of their own defence has involved no reduction in America’s own spending. Trump being Trump, maybe what he’s after is for us and the other allies to spend more on buying defence equipment from US companies. Here’s a thought: does having every country armed to the teeth deter war, or make it more likely? And here’s another: in the hugely unlikely event that the Chinese were coming down to take us over, how could we possibly have a military big enough to stop them? What gets me is the ill-disguised glee with which our defenceniks – most of them with a vested interest in greater defence spending – accepted without question or justification that our spending must be greatly increased. Why has there been so little discussion of how any extra spending would be paid for? When our richest woman, Gina Rinehart, opined that our spending should be increased to 5 per cent of national income, I wanted to ask her how much of that she was offering to pay. I don’t think Anthony Albanese will be taking orders from Trump on this.但是，在一定程度上，我们确实会增加国防支出，我们都将缴纳更高的税款。 Unless, of course, we borrow it all and leave the bill for our offspring to pick up. Ross Gittins is the economics editor Ross Gittins unpacks the economy in an exclusive subscriber-only newsletter. Sign up to receive it every Tuesday evening.