Does empire benefit us all?

Economics Economics Questions
1

So I was having a debate the other day in class with some people who were saying that the average American benefits in quality of life from the American empire. I was arguing that this is not the case because a) all things “accounted” for, the us government is estimated to spend about a trillion dollars a year on the military. This is money that is either printed or directly taxed, either way, they are dollars that are not being productively invested within a free economy. b) All of the soldiers and pencil-pushers it takes to run an empire are not contributing to the productive economy. c) Trade creates more wealth than theft and destruction. Given these points, it may seem like we benefit, but really we just don’t see the cost.

I was wondering if anyone has a link to a decent article that makes these or better arguments about the effects of empire on the populations strapped with the financial burden. Or tell me I’m wrong, and that we do benefit overall from empire.

2

I posted about it here, which will be part of a series.

3

No, it’s usually a drain on the colonizing country, not the colony, according to what I’ve read. Now if we could somehow get the resources from these colonies cheaper this way that it would be to simply buy them on the free market, then I guess you could make an argument for Empire. I’m sure our government doesn’t want to go that route and will, instead, say that our freedom is at stake and the costs are well worth it. But no, we could disband our military and use the money to buy the damn oil and save a forture. And we wouldn’t be any less safe.