Economics: The Dubious Benefits of Being No. 1

After World War II, America picked up the pieces of a shattered world. It restored order and economic health to Europe and Japan while keeping the Russian bear and Chinese dragon at bay. America became the world's leading economic and military power. Proud achievements, but what does it mean to be the “greatest” nation on earth? What has being No. 1 done for most Americans, and where has it left us today?

With a mind-numbing national debt of $13 trillion and growing, the nation is flirting with financial disaster. Every American man, woman and child would need to fork over $43,000 to pay off that debt — a debt that grows greater every day. About half of that titanic debt has been incurred paying for the insatiable U.S. military behemoth, and for chronic wars of questionable rationale and cloudy conclusions. When veterans' benefits and debt service are included, military spending is now more than $1.4 trillion per year and consumes more than 50 percent of the total federal budget.

America has military bases in more than 120 countries scattered around the world — and rather than being reimbursed for protecting these countries — from enemies real or perceived — we actually pay rent to them. For some nations, our military presence has become a source of resentment, even festering into terrorist violence against us. For other nations, our military presence has become more a matter of economics than of their national security. Our military bases generate vibrant economies for the locals.

Meanwhile, our financial house of cards teeters precariously on loans from China and on paper dollars furiously churned out by the overheated printing presses of the U.S. Treasury. We are risking the financial health of the nation to remain the biggest dog in the kennel. Why?

North Korea proves that even a small nation without a global military presence can protect itself from enemies. It only needs enough nuclear weapons to deter aggression. America could abandon its foreign bases, slash its military spending to a fraction of what it is now and still protect itself from potential enemies as long as it maintains its capability to deliver nuclear annihilation against any place on earth.

For more, see Randy Alcorn: The Dubious Benefits of Being No. 1 by Randy Alcorn, September 4, 2010, at Noozhawk.