The Flower Children asked this question in 1967. The numbers have only gotten bigger. Here is the data — sourced, verified, and impossible to ignore.
Sources: SIPRI, Watson Institute (Brown University), OpenSecrets.org, U.S. DoD Contract Awards Database, company annual reports.
$2.3 Trillion
Total cost of the Iraq War
Watson Institute, Brown University (2021)
$2.3 Trillion
Total cost of the Afghanistan War
Watson Institute, Brown University (2021)
$778 Billion
U.S. Defense budget in 2020 — more than the next 11 countries combined
SIPRI Military Expenditure Database (2021)
54 cents
Of every federal discretionary dollar goes to the military
National Priorities Project (2022)
6 cents
Of every federal discretionary dollar goes to education
National Priorities Project (2022)
44%
Of new teachers leave the profession within 5 years — partly due to underfunding
Learning Policy Institute (2017)
Average annual DoD contract revenue for the top 6 defense contractors during each major conflict. Source: U.S. DoD Contract Awards Database; inflation-adjusted to 2023 dollars for Vietnam era.
Note: Vietnam-era figures are inflation-adjusted estimates based on declassified DoD procurement records. Iraq and Afghanistan figures are from official DoD contract award databases.
While the S&P 500 fell after 9/11 and took years to recover, defense contractor stocks rose immediately and continued climbing throughout the "War on Terror." Source: Historical stock price data, Yahoo Finance / Bloomberg.
The pattern: When 3,000 Americans died on September 11, defense contractor stocks went up. When 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam, defense contractor stocks went up. The Flower Children saw this. They called it by its name.
Total political contributions (PAC + individual) from defense contractors to federal candidates and parties. Source: OpenSecrets.org Center for Responsive Politics.
🏛️ Seats on Armed Services Committees — the committees that approve defense budgets
🗳️ Votes against military spending cuts — even when the Pentagon itself requests them
📋 Revolving door appointments — 380+ senior DoD officials moved to defense contractor jobs (2008-2018)
📰 Media ownership — defense contractors own or fund think tanks that shape public opinion on war
Eisenhower's warning (1961): "In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex."
They didn't listen.
Defense contractor CEO compensation vs. the people who actually do the work of education and national defense. Teacher and soldier bars shown ×100 to be visible on the same scale. Source: SEC filings, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2022).
$23.9M
Lockheed Martin CEO annual pay (2022)
$68,000
Average U.S. teacher annual salary (2022)
The CEO earns this in 1 day
$44,000
Average U.S. soldier annual salary (2022)
The CEO earns this in 16 hours
FIDUROD — the epistemology of outcomes at any human cost — runs the Pentagon and the school board with the same logic. Soldiers are expendable. Teachers are replaceable. The only thing that matters is the output: territory captured, test scores raised.
TeacherWorld exists to name this pattern, break this pattern, and build something that treats teachers — and the children they serve — as ends in themselves, not means to someone else's profit.
All data on this page is sourced from publicly available, peer-reviewed, or government databases: SIPRI Military Expenditure Database, Watson Institute Costs of War Project (Brown University), OpenSecrets.org Center for Responsive Politics, U.S. Department of Defense Contract Awards Database, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and SEC executive compensation filings. TeacherWorld does not fabricate data. We follow the money.