What does standard of living have to do with it?

What does NZ or Finland do in the world? Do most countries ask them for financial or military help? Do they innovate products or industry? Do other countries try to emulate their success?

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95 M3
03 X5 3.0
06 X3 3.0 Sport

In all fairness NZ is the best extreme sports destination in the world

Finland....hmmmm.....Finlandia vodka?

and Eric if you don't like the system but are CHOOSING TO GET PAID BY IT you are simply the HYPOCRITE I thought you were

while your bleeding heart is in dollars rebound is correct that you need to look at it in percentages

also another country with very low military spending is Iceland which also has the highest rate of alcoholism per capita of any nation so your low military spending could potentially turn us all into alcoholics...at least this is a potential issue since the entire social structure of the country is based on percentages (or dollars) spent on the military

Size is not the only measure of ones Military might. I do however agree with you for the first time. Getting what we pay for is what we need more of.

When you are looking to point fingers at what cost us the most and we get the least check public school before the Military, last I checked 50% of my taxes are paying for that and it's as broken as anything I can think of.

So the lives of older people are more important than the lives of children? I think most people would disagree with that. Ask most parents if their lives are more important than their children, and I think you will find most think exactly the opposite. Most parents would gladly give their lives to save their children.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

Well, one thing that comes to mind is Nokia. More cell phones from from Finland than any other country. And yes, Nokia is one of the most innovative companies in the telecommunications industry, and they have more than double the market share of any other cell phone company.

Not bad for a country that has less than 2% of the population of the United States.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

what the hell, are you talking about? Nothing in my previous posts say that.

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95 M3
03 X5 3.0
06 X3 3.0 Sport

So Nokia then. Wow, all we have is Cisco, IBM, Boeing, J&J, Google, Sun, Motorola, Apple.......

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95 M3
03 X5 3.0
06 X3 3.0 Sport

50%??


I'm not sure what your local and state taxes are, because that varies by state and City.

But with regard to any Federal Taxes you pay, including Federal Income Tax:

Last year, the Federal Budget was $2.77 trillion, of which $56 billion was for the Dept. of Education, making a wopping 2.02%.

And this year, Bush's budget is being raised to $2.9 trillion, but he has proposed the same $56 billion for the Dept. of Education, or 1.93% of the Federal Budget.

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my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

S T R E T C H - to make your point Most other cell phone makers don't focus on cell phones as the majority of their sales. But back to the point at hand, I think we all agreed that the military budget is necessary to secure the homeland, so to speak. Any did anyone else bring up the notion that military spending is for more then just weapons?

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An unwavering defender of those I see worth protecting.

"promote the general welfare, not provide the general welfare"

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.