Eisenhower on Military Spending

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children . . . Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron."
--Dwight D. Eisenhower
Excerpt from "The Chance for Peace" address delivered before the American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953
http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/chance.htm

According to the 2007 Time Almanac, the United States 478 billion dollars (or $1604 per person) for military expenditures annually. That amounts to 48% of the military spending world wide. The next closest country is England, which spends 48 billion USD. Now I grant it, that figure probably includes salary and wages for current Armed Forces members, and uniforms and such.

Still I think we should be able to say 'hey, wait a minute, I don't want $1604 of my dollars to buy weapons--convert it to international implements of peace, humanitarian efforts; with things like basic health care for third world countries, basic farm implements like rakes and shovels, better home building materials for earthquake and hurricane prone areas, etc.