Answer: Who knows?
Here’s an article that mentions 598 bases outside the U.S. I’ve heard more like a 1000. And, hey, how about off-world bases, huh? The article says 5000 total. If that’s true, that leaves approximately 4400 of them inside the U.S., which means, for 50 states, about 90 bases per state? WHAT? REALLY? Are there 90 military bases in your state?
And does the 5000 figure count all the industries that spring up around bases to service them? All the aerospace and weapons industries? All the IT and catering and supplies of various kinds? The universities that increasingly, are totally dependent on and in bed with military and associated-with-military grants and programs? The architects, developers, contractors of all these bases, plus (I presume) civilians to run them?
And then, of course, there’s our “elected representatives” whose campaigns are funded by industries dependent on the military.
It’s hard to see just what, in the U.S. is not somehow tied in to the military behemoth.
Question: how much money does it take, per day, to maintain all these military bases?
I googled that question and came up with the answer to a different question: how much it takes to maintain one soldier for one year in Afghanistan: $850,000, and rising.
