Priorities

Millions for defense, but not one cent for education. 

  Or health care. Or housing. Or urban cleanup. Or public safety. Or road and bridge repairs. Or railroad maintenance. Or old age benefits. Or any other social welfare program.
   Unless the money goes to contracts for corporations run by wealthy backers of a political party.
   Meanwhile, whatever it is, the private sector can do it better.
   That seems to be the mantra of many conservative, free-enterprise cheerleaders. That is, of course, as long as there's a profit to be made. Otherwise, the private sector won't do it at all.
   If it ain't broke, don't fix it, they say. Maintenance is costly and eats into profit, they point out.
   Therefore, the policy is to wait until something breaks, then fix it. And if some people suffer injuries or death when something does break, well, unfortunately that's just collateral damage, and compensation can be deducted from the corporate tax bill.

   There are some things that are so important to society that government must provide them, either because the private sector cannot or will not do them, or does them poorly. For starters, these are things such as public safety, police and fire protection, road and bridge construction and maintenance, air traffic control, and perhaps most important, education.
   The private sector has done some of these things in the past, and still does some today. But to a large extent, especially in the field of education, private schooling is out of reach of the many. Public safety and transportation, moreover, are also important and must be provided for all. Left to the private sector, only those able to pay would obtain such services.

   It has long been established that there is a direct correlation between education and prosperity. A well educated, skilled workforce is a key component of economic well being for an entire society. A recent study by the International Monetary Fund has documented "large differences in production efficiency across U.S. states, with states having better educational attainment and greater investment in research and development" doing better economically and having greater productivity.
   For example, productivity declined by more than 3 percentage points in states like New Mexico and South Dakota during the recent economic downturn, but states with higher educational levels and workforce skills suffered dips of less than 1 percent, if at all.
   In addition, "the average years of schooling vary from below 12.5 years in Mississippi and West Virginia to over 14.5 years in the District of Columbia and Massachusetts."
   Therefore, the study concluded there is a "strong positive relation" between education and productivity growth.

   So instead of spending more and more billions of dollars on destructive military armaments, society as a whole would benefit far more from investments in a well educated, healthy population and a skilled workforce.
   Or, as George Bernard Shaw had one of his characters put it in his 1905 play, "Major Barbara," the poor are better served having jobs in the munitions industry than by getting food from charity run soup kitchens. On the other hand, this was written before weapons of mass destruction became common, and the two World Wars counted casualties in the millions.