Summary

The article contemplates the potential global benefits if humanity were to trust each other enough to significantly reduce or eliminate military spending, redirecting those funds towards solving pressing issues such as hunger, climate change, healthcare, and poverty.

Abstract

The article "How much would we save if we trusted each other?" explores the high cost of war and war preparation, noting that the global defense budget amounts to approximately Two Trillion US Dollars annually. It suggests that this vast sum could be repurposed to address critical global challenges, including feeding the hungry for decades, tackling climate change, providing universal healthcare, and eradicating poverty. The author posits that trust among nations could lead to the redirection of defense budgets over the next ten years to achieve long-term solutions for universal health care, hunger, poverty, and climate change. Additionally, it could foster better mental health globally, spur creativity to solve current and future problems, improve overall quality of life, extend life expectancy, ensure responsible development of AI and robotics, and accelerate the discovery of cures for major diseases.

Opinions

The author believes that the current level of spending on defense is a direct result of a lack of trust among nations.
Preparing for hypothetical wars is seen as an even greater expense than the wars themselves.
The article implies that the money spent on defense could be more effectively used to solve global issues and improve the human condition.
There is a critical view of the defense industry, suggesting that certain companies may benefit from and perpetuate the cycle of defense spending.
The author is optimistic about the potential for humanity to overcome distrust and redirect resources for the collective good.
The author suggests that the elimination of war and defense spending could lead to significant advancements in technology, healthcare, and space exploration.
The article hints at a possible lack of transparency or awareness regarding the companies that profit from the defense budget.

How much would we save if we trusted each other?

What if humanity trusted each other and never have a war? What if used the defense budgets towards solving other problems?

How much we spend on wars, what if we didn’t need wars? Photo by Pixabay from Pexels

What is the one secret that everyone knows but no one cares? How much we spend because we do not trust each other. Wars cost money.

But do you know what costs even more? — preparing for wars that never come!

Countries spend almost all of their defense budget towards getting ready for a war! Minimal parts of the defense forces support disaster relief/non-defense issues.

How much do we spend on defense?

The global defense budget is approximately Two Trillion US Dollars for ONE YEAR.

Look at the screenshot below for a breakdown! The USA is obviously out spending everyone — that is not a surprise! But the % of the GDP is an interesting measure of how much distrust costs some of these nations.

Screenshot from Wikipedia — Ilam Padmanabhan

What if we trusted each other and didn’t need to spend on defense?

What can we do with Two Trillion USD? It is enough money to

Feed the world’s hungry for over next 15–20 years
Pay off the majority of the national debt of most countries globally
Put millions of wind turbines/solar farms around the globe, reversing climate change
Build millions of schools and hospitals for those who cannot afford it
Provide healthcare for everyone in the world for over two-five years

That is what we can do if we trust each other not to attack one another. I know it is not easy, but is it impossible?

Imagine using the money allocated for the defense budgets over the next ten years for other causes.

We could permanently solve

Impact from climate change, and potentially even reverse the effects
Universal Health care — every human being is cared for
Hunger — becomes a memory
Poverty — dead and buried
Inequality — I am not so sure if we will solve this, but people at the bottom will have a better life

And we could focus on

Mental health of the entire world be significantly better — imagine reading nothing about wars in your news feeds
We could unleash our creativity towards solving other current and future problems
Improve the quality of life globally
Extending average lifespan significantly — we will need it for space travel!
Focus on controlling AI / Robotics — we’ll be caught napping otherwise when AI takes over
Eradicating diseases — we could develop and vaccinate billions in two years for Covid. What if we can find cures for cancer, diabetes, cardiac issues at the same pace?
Space travel/colonization of other planets

We would take some concrete steps towards making sure we do not become extinct. And this will put us towards becoming a Type 1 civilization!

We all know Facebook, Tesla, Apple, etc. But we do not seem to know the companies that benefit from the two trillion dollars annual budget. Maybe that is their game — make much money, and make sure people do not talk about them.

I will go into more details on each of these topics in later posts.

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Sources:

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

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

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

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/oct/13/ending-world-hunger-by-2030-would-cost-330bn-study-finds