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Comment by oldjokes | Hacker News Reader

We could slice 10% (maybe less) off the military budget and pay for college for everyone, forever. This "who pays" nonsense is just that: nonsense.

I'm sure the Navy would find a way to make do with a mere nine aircraft carriers.

If you're worried about freeloaders getting welfare they don't deserve then slashing the insanely corrupt grifting that goes on every day in DHS/Defense should be your top priority.

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> We could slice 10% (maybe less) off the military budget and pay for college for everyone, forever.

According to Wikipedia, 'the approved 2019 Department of Defense budget is $686.1 billion.' In the 2015–2016 academic year, colleges and universities spent $559 billion (https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=75). So 10% of the military budget would pay for a little over 12% of collegiate spending.

That $559 billion is including all the money the government (states, mostly?) already gives to schools that they then spend. GP was talking about (I assume) covering tuition, which is estimated between $50 billion and $75 billion from the articles [0] I can find. That lines up with ~10% of the military budget.

[0] one example: https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2016/07/28/487794394/hillary...

> In the 2015–2016 academic year, colleges and universities spent $559 billion

Talking out my nether regions here - but is that broken out in any way?

Basically - I'm wondering how much of that spending is on actual academics vs non-academic activities?

Perhaps we could cut back on entitlements , too. That would bring bigger savings and help with the governmental fiscal responsibility thing. Lower debt would let people keep more of their money to spend on making their lives better.

The point is to make life easier for people, not harder.

Fun thing about "personal fiscal responsibility" is that almost everyone preaching about it when talking about entitlements have either never been poor in their lives or are grifters looking for acceptance from those who have never been poor in their lives.

Entitlements are exactly that. You, the taxpayer, paid for them, you are entitled to use them. How about we cut the things we pay for but aren't entitled to use, like the military.

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