Defense or, Living standards of citizen... Where should we spend more?

Hey Biswa, You're right that we should keep our resistance strong and tight. That's why a country has to pay more for maintaining a tough defense as there are aggressive nations around to attack in this world of turmoil. And at the same time, we should mind about diplomatic stances which require quality living standards in order to avoid clash with others. Because along with the improvement of living standards the sense and awareness of defense enhances. Therefore, we should spend most for the strong defense first and then for promoting living standards to attain a developed nation. May Allah bless you.

I don't know if we need to spend more money or spend it better. It is estimated that the government spends up to a Trillion Dollars a year on poverty Programs. General Welfare or Aid to Families with Dependent Children are often considered the Poverty Programs.A brief search turns up such programs that are income based: Food Stamps, Head Start, Title 1 (Education Program), Medicaid, Pell Grants, Section 8 housing, Earned Income Credit, Fuel Assistance Payments, Work programs, VISTA, America Corp, Social Security / SSI (your payments are based upon your earned income and some people receive it even if they did not work), and many others at the state and local level. If you add them all up it comes to about $27,000 per year for each man, woman and child in poverty. This is more than we spend on defense each year. You also have a government bureaucracy that is dependent on keeping people in poverty to keep their job and keeping politicians elected who will support poverty programs. I ask you who is the program really helping?

Hi Biswa, if I were given the portfolio, I would give highest payscales to people going on front, and reduce, yes, reduce annually the payscales of people in administrative government jobs! :) In the meanwhile, I would give contracts to people like Narayan Murthy, Nandan Nilekani to come up with software that would ensure we dont need government servants in other walks of life. :) I would also encourage scientists to develop medicines, and medical equipment, apart from arms, and other machinery. I would also encourage medical institutions based on number of patients that they were able to attend in any one year. :) That way, private hospitals would get no tax concessions unless they brought down their charges. :) Living standards are of no concern to me. These come down based on the number of mouths to feed. So people who want to improve their living standards would naturally think in terms of reducing their family. I would also encourage non profit organizations to come up with teams that would be good in negotiations. That would help me get good panels of negotiators (without paying) for negotiating issues on borders, and inter state. So much for commissions, and investigations. :(

we already have a strong defense department. We should focus on education reform and medical care. I just lost my job as a caregiver for my mom because of the cuts made to Medi-Cal here in California. She is no longer eligible for medical cuz she makes just over the limit per month. She makes $1350 a month for ssi and retirement combined, and the limit is $1250.00. So, she isn't eligible for Medi-Cal, which means she isn't eligible for IHSS, which means while I still take care of her, IHSS wont pay me for it anymore. I can't get another job because my mom can't stay at home by herself for longer than it takes me to rush down the st to go the grocery shopping.

I think we need to spend more on Living standards so people would have money for defense..