Hacker News Reader

Comment by helpfulContrib | Hacker News Reader

The cost of a single F35 could fund so much peace in the world. The only reason this isn't happening is because the people making sure the American people keep endlessly funding these programs have no intention whatsoever to make peace. They just don't have the intention to do so.

They intend for there to be endless war, which is what these machines produce. It is the only thing they can be used for..

View on HN

I abhor war. I believe the only way to secure peace is to be very good at war. That's why I participated in flight testing the F-35, and why I work on electronic warfare simulations now.

I wish I lived in a world where there's no need for any of this, but as far as I know, war is as old as the species.

You may have crossed paths with some of my bad code. I'm sorry.

I have crossed paths with a lot of bad code. They write it faster than I can fix it.

> the American people keep endlessly funding these programs

Fighter planes are a significant export earner for the USA - it isn't just domestic demand.

I would love to live in a world where I can know for a fact that war will never again happen. However, the path to that world is a very long one. In the meantime I want to know that the acquisitive psychopaths that run many of the countries in the world have a very good reason to not line me up in front of a wall and shoot me.

Should we be taking steps to a more peaceful world that we aren't right now? Yes, very much so. However, unless you want to imitate the path of Tibet or Ukraine, then you better spend some money on guns and fighter jets.

How do you fund peace? Defense is pretty straightforward to me, but even Toms trying to give away free shoes in Africa created a lot of conflict.

Yes, America funded Russia's recent invasions. Yup. All America.

To be honest, we may have done so unintentionally. It's a major downside to the idea of peace through trade that was popular in the late 1900s. While the countries you trade with may choose peace to avoid disrupting that trade, they may also decide to take all that money and goods and fund their military efforts.

I think if you want endless war you would increase the numbers of your armed forces by several orders of magnitude.

Not spend very large sums of money on things piloted by 1-2 people that can end wars relatively quickly.

This is such nonsense. Could the USA have won WWII by paying off Hitler?

Possibly, but the world would be much worse off for it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com