Our Tax Dollars

Ugh.

I knew we spent a lot of money on the military, but I didn't know Congress spent more than half of its discretionary budget on it. This chart gives a proportional representation of where our money goes.

There are so many ways to look at this, all of which make me feel really awful inside.

For one, it displays very starkly an overwhelmingly male ethos. It's like, Fuck everyone else! We want our dick toys!!

Or, 51 cents out of every dollar goes to the art of killing people.

And to filthy rich war merchants.

On the other hand, I know thata lot of that money on the right side of the charts -- the help-our-fellow-Americans money -- is totally tainted with bureaucratic dysfunctiionality by the time it reaches street level. As in, idiots like Steve Glorioso and Kathy Walter Mack (KC SchoolDistrict attorney) and thousands upon thousands of unmotivated, disaffected and/or disempowered drones wind up controlling it.

Yuck.

Thank God America's got so many totally freakin' cool redeeming facets. Because it totally sucks otherwise.