The reason is that all those other things create actual value, thus cutting into profits of capitalists if publicly funded. If you're a capitalist state that wants to steal massive amounts of wealth from the people and redistribute them to the rich by funding an Industry, then war really is the industry you want because it only destroys value.
For example, if you cancelled the Pentagons budget and funded centrally planned healthcare instead, no private healthcare provider could compete. It would completely close down a huge market. Same with education, infrastructure, etc. War doesn't have this problem of closing down a market, but has the advantage of opening up new markets (resources, cheap labour, more consumers, even rebuilding after the war, etc.) via imperialism.
Edit: In short, imperialism is in part a reaction to the tendency of the rate of profit to fall and offers an opportunity to renew primitive accumulation.
But the contractors. We need the contractors that want to overcharge and take as much of the taxpayers money as possible. It's important! /s
It's not particularly true outside the US though, most NATO members spend less than the 2%, and here in the UK the army is down to 30k or so staff. In a nation of 70 million. If total war were to break out, how long could the UK survive?
Meanwhile NHS spending as a % of GDP rose even under the conservatives, although this figure doesn't take into account an aging population.
Don't worry, your ruling class benefits plenty from our invasions too 😘
Part of the post ww2 division of labor. The US would keep its war industry and become western capitalism's primary enforcement arm worldwide, letting its allies or defeated clients host US military bases and develop consumer products industries.
Yah the reason Europeans have stuff like free education and healthcare is because the US does all their dirty work. Iraq is a perfect example. The US took very little oil for itself, continuing to rely on South American and domestic fossil fuels. But Iraq wasn't keeping its oil for itself, it was all being siphoned off to Britain, France, Norway, Germany, etc.
European NATO allies have begun hitting 2% targets in recent years and there are heated debates about going way above that in multiple capitals.
https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_49198.htm
I will note that in the UK case the situation described in the picture is particularly grotesque, if you consider the development of food bank statistics. The Trussel Trust distributed 3.1 million food parcels in 2023/2024, of these 1.1 million to children.
In 2008/2009 the number of parcels distributed was 26'000.
https://www.trusselltrust.org/news-and-blog/latest-stats/end-year-stats/
https://www.statista.com/statistics/382695/uk-foodbank-users/
it's not true inside the US either. The military gets like 17% of the total budget, and healthcare spending is like 50% of the budget.
