The Cost of Empire

The Hidden Budget

Congress and the media report the DoD “topline” number — currently $886 billion — as if it represents total military spending. It doesn't. Significant military costs are deliberately scattered across other agencies to make the total look smaller:

The Base Empire

The United States maintains approximately 750 military bases in at least 80 countries. By comparison, the UK, France, and Russia combined have approximately 30 overseas bases. China has 1 (in Djibouti). The US base network is unprecedented in human history — larger than the British Empire at its peak, more extensive than Rome's, and more expensive than any military infrastructure ever constructed.

These bases cost approximately $55 billion per year to operate — a figure that doesn't include the environmental remediation costs (contaminated water, toxic waste), the social costs (crime, sexual assault, cultural disruption in host communities), or the strategic costs (bases provoke the very hostility they claim to deter).

What We Can't Afford Because of What We Spend

Every dollar spent on empire is a dollar not spent at home. The $1.35 trillion annual military budget represents choices — choices to fund aircraft carriers instead of hospitals, bases instead of schools, bombs instead of bridges. The opportunity cost is staggering:

All six programs combined — free college, ending homelessness, universal pre-K, clean water, broadband, and doubling cancer research — would cost $252 billion per year. That's less than the VA budget alone. Less than 19% of true military spending. The United States doesn't lack the resources for these programs. It lacks the political will to redirect military spending.

Imperial Overstretch

In 1987, historian Paul Kennedy published The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers, arguing that empires decline when military spending outpaces economic growth — a phenomenon he called “imperial overstretch.” The pattern is consistent across history: Spain, the Netherlands, France, Britain, the Soviet Union — all spent themselves into decline trying to maintain global military dominance.

Kennedy's thesis was controversial when applied to the United States in 1987. It looks prescient in 2025. The US share of global GDP has declined from 40% in 1960 to 24% today, while military spending has increased in real terms. Infrastructure crumbles. Healthcare costs bankrupt families. Education outcomes decline. Life expectancy has fallen. The empire abroad is funded by decay at home.

The Comparison They Don't Want You to Make

When politicians justify the military budget, they compare it to China and Russia. But the comparison is misleading in both directions. First, the US spends more than the next 10 countries combined. Second, and more importantly, other developed nations achieve security at a fraction of the cost — and use the savings to invest in their citizens:

Every nation on this list is secure. None faces an existential military threat. But their citizens live longer, pay less for healthcare and education, and enjoy higher quality of life — because their governments chose to invest in people instead of empire.

The Choice

The United States doesn't have a defense budget. It has an empire budget. The distinction matters because defense — protecting the homeland from genuine threats — would cost a fraction of what the US currently spends. The nuclear arsenal alone provides an effective deterrent against any state actor. The two oceans provide geographic security that no base in Djibouti can improve.

What the $1.35 trillion buys is not security but global dominance — the ability to project military force anywhere on Earth within hours, to maintain military superiority over every other nation simultaneously, and to sustain a network of bases and alliances that would be recognizable to any Roman emperor.

The question America refuses to ask: is empire worth it? Is global military dominance worth crumbling schools, unaffordable healthcare, declining life expectancy, and a generation drowning in student debt? Every other developed nation has answered that question — and chosen differently.

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