Comment by megalodon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by megalodon | Hacker News Reader

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World's largest arms exporter: US ($10,194,000,000 in 2014)

World's largest arms importer: Saudi Arabia ($4,243,000,000 in 2014)

To me, these are scary numbers.

> When a country decides to invest in arms, rather than in education, housing, the environment, and health services for its people, it is depriving a whole generation of its right to prosperity and happiness. We have produced one firearm for every ten inhabitants of this planet, and yet we have not bothered to end hunger when such a feat is well within our reach. Our international regulations allow almost three-quarters of all global arms sales to pour into the developing world with no binding international guidelines whatsoever. Our regulations do not hold countries accountable for what is done with the weapons they sell, even when the probable use of such weapons is obvious. – Oscar Arias Sanchez, 1987 Nobel Peace Prize winner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_industry#World.27s_larges...

It appears, from what I could find, that Saudia Arabia's yearly spending on education is $57.9B, they spend $42.7B on health, with a total spending of $229.3. So they spend 25% of their budget on education and less then 2% on arms importation. Yes they could spend that money on something else, but please don't make it seem like they are neglecting healthcare or educational spending for arms.

http://www.us-sabc.org/custom/news/details.cfm?id=1645

Perhaps considering the total military expenditure will provide a better perspective - $80B for Saudi Arabia in 2014; 3rd highest in the world in $ terms, and highest in the world in terms of percent of GDP (10.7%).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_...

Unlike gold, the treasure Saudi Arabia is sitting on top of is: in higher demand, more easily convertible into wealth and prosperity, and among it's resource class, the most easily accessible in the world. That, combined with the fact they live in a dangerous part of the world, leads me to believe it's a rational decision to try to protect their treasure.

Whether their armed forced are capable is, sadly, depending on your POV, another story. Like in most autocratic societies, a strong military is seen as a threat to the leadership.

Thank you! I was looking for that but wasn't able to find it quickly enough.

And what an education it is!

https://freedomhouse.org/report/special-reports/saudi-arabia...

This appears to be the Chewbacca defense

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chewbacca_defense

So, Germany sells arms for about 1100 million euros. Among this amount are western countries, China, India.

Germany will spend at least 8000 million euros for refugees this year (2014 it were about 2400 million euros).

If there is any relation between exporting arms and the number of refugees, this is not only a humanitarian, but clearly a financial disaster.

But you're talking about government spending (public money) that is a financial disaster. That can't be denied. But that 1100 million Euros in arms sales did not go to the government, it went to the defence industry. Don't you see what's happening? The defence industry is reaping the benefits of the wars while the people suffer (both in Germany because they have to pay for the refugees and wherever the weapons have been used).

Just as scary, these numbers are small fractions on the US arms procurement budget.

DoD spent about $115B in 2013 and budgeted $100B in 2014 for procurement (PDF source: http://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudge...)

That's a lot of weapons.

Also adding that the total military budget of the US is 600+ billion a year. Talk about scary and it is not just an idle threat. The US has killed more civilians than any other actor in the modern world.

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