In the two minutes you were brushing your teeth on Tuesday morning, the U.S. military spent about $1.2 million in defense contracts.
By the time you clocked out from work at 5 p.m., a total of $840 million in taxpayer money had been awarded to a handful of companies for everything from submarine-related engineering to “communications management” services. That’s more in one day that the annual gross domestic product of some small island nations.
Though it was significantly higher than some other days this week, Tuesday’s reported expenditure is by no means uncommon. A random sampling of 10 other days in the past five years averaged to an awarding of approximately $930 million in defense contracts per day (including samples as low as $27 million in a day, up to nearly $2 billion).
Related: The Price of Intelligence (in Billions)
In a nation that routinely allocates north of $500 billion to its military annually, there is relatively little interest when it comes to exactly how all that money is spent.
Read the full story over at Real Clear Life.
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