In recent years, much has been debated over whether the authority should enhance national defence, with some individuals supporting this proposal in t he light of public safety. Although acknowledging the merits of this idea, I disagree due to some shortcomings that come with it.
Proponents of this view often argue that it is a compulsory re sponsibility for the leaders and the s tate of a country to maintain the power of the national military. Perhaps, every year, a country ha s to face numerous dangerous threats from external hostile forces wanting to achieve national territory or local natural resources of that country. Hence, the government should allocate financial resour ces to military power, weapon upgra des, or technology innovation in order to ensure its citizens’ safety from such detrimental threats. This sentiment finds resonance in China in recent years, where the president published the proposal to allocate 20% of the overall national inc ome to various military actions such as military education, creating state-of-the-art ai rcraft or weapons, and military pa rades to assert military strength and therefore prevent any intention of co nflict or war cre ation from other international political forces.
Notwithstanding the aforementioned argument, I am of the firm belief that significant spending on the defence budget is a n unsustainable and unfeasible development model f or a country. This is because the authority should also pay attention to other sectors to improve the quality of life, such as healthcare services, unemployment benefits, supporting the vulnerable, and reducing poverty. Only when a country de velops in a multifaceted and appropriate way can such a nation exhibit efficient economic profit, enhance people’s trust, and might become a powerhouse. An examplificatio n can be seen in the 2007 US economic crisis, where with unemployment benefits, many unemployed people survived through that period and various corp orations successfully avoided bankruptcy. As a result, the nation could be able to re gain economic sta bility and dev elop sustainably in the follow ing years.
To recapitulate, although enhancing national defence might be beneficial in terms of a country’s security and public safety, it is more appropriate to balance resource allocation to both military and social benefits. For a nation to achieve long-term prosp erity and s ustainability, the government should maintain military power and also pay attention to the quality of it s citizens’ live s in different aspects.