What if the funds currently allocated to military operations and border enforcement found expression instead through healthcare prevention and educational development? This reorientation represents more than mere fiscal redistribution—it embodies a fundamental reconceptualization of what constitutes genuine security. Rather than investing primarily in territorial defense and boundary maintenance, such redirection cultivates human flourishing through biological and cognitive wellbeing. The following analysis explores the transformative implications of this hypothetical reallocation across public health outcomes, economic development, and social stability.
The contemporary geopolitical landscape manifests a profound arithmetical tension: an unprecedented accumulation of financial resources directed toward systems of containment, separation, and destruction, while fundamental human needs—biological integrity, cognitive development, and collective wellbeing—remain chronically underfunded. This tension materializes most visibly in global expenditure patterns, where military and border fortification consume vast resources that might otherwise nurture human potential.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the global military budget in 2024 reached approximately $2.44 trillion—a figure that represents not merely economic allocation but a particular conception of security predicated on the capacity for violence. Concurrently, border control and immigration enforcement expenditures, while more difficult to aggregate with precision, constitute significant financial commitments. "Since 1994, ... the annual budget of the U.S. Border Patrol has increased nearly 20-fold, rising from $400 million to over $7.3 billion in 2024". Conceptualizing security through practices of exclusion and surveillance.
The combined total (of military and border control) is approximately $2.5 trillion globally annually. $2.5 trillion represents not merely financial capacity but ontological potential: resources that could be directed toward an alternative conception of security through the nurturance of human wellbeing. This figure vastly exceeds current global allocations for preventive medicine and education, suggesting not merely incremental improvement but transformative possibility.
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WHO estimate for Universal Health Coverage (UHC): $371 billion per year.
UNESCO estimates for universal basic education for all children K-12: $340 billion per year.
The magnitude of military and border control expenditures reveals not merely fiscal priorities but metaphysical assumptions—a collective investment in the infrastructure of separation rather than the architecture of flourishing. This arithmetic disparity invites us to consider not only alternative budgetary allocations but alternative conceptions of security itself.
The reallocation of military and border security expenditures toward preventive medicine would represent not merely a fiscal redistribution but a reconceptualization of societal priorities—a shift from defending against external threats to nurturing internal potentials. This paradigmatic transformation would manifest across multiple dimensions of human biological wellbeing, with cascading effects throughout social systems.
The World Health Organization estimates that achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) for all would require approximately $371 billion per year—a substantial sum that nonetheless represents merely 16% of current military and border control expenditures. This disparity reveals not resource scarcity but distribution priorities. UHC would establish an infrastructure of care capable of addressing both acute pathologies and long-term health determinants, creating a foundation for biological flourishing currently fragmented by economic, geographic, and political barriers.
Investing about 15% of the military budget in health would "prevent 97 million premature deaths – one every five seconds over 15 years – including more than 50 million infants and children who are either stillborn or die before their fifth birthday, and 20 million deaths from non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes and cancer. Life expectancy would increase by between 3.1 and 8.4 years, and 535 million years of healthy living would be added across the 67 countries."
The redirection of military and border security expenditures toward educational initiatives would constitute not merely resource reallocation but epistemological transformation—investing in the development of human cognitive capacity rather than systems of containment and destruction. This reconfiguration would generate cascading effects throughout social, economic, and political systems.
UNESCO estimates that ensuring universal basic education for all children globally would require approximately US$340 billion—less than 15% of current military expenditures. This modest investment would effectively eliminate illiteracy, providing a foundation for health literacy, economic participation, and civic engagement currently denied to millions. Education functions not merely as knowledge transmission but as cognitive infrastructure—establishing capacities for analysis, communication, and adaptation essential for both individual flourishing and collective problem-solving.
Note, the $340 billion UNESCO estimate is for education for all children, K-12. That does not preclude an alternate method of AI-enhanced, always-on tutoring, for all humans: to any level. Even if the estimated cost were to double or triple or quadruple, it would still cost less than what is spent on war currently. Shifting the focus of civilization to life-enhancement would generate value.
Contemporary neuroscience has revealed the profound developmental significance of early childhood experiences—establishing neurological architectures that persist throughout the lifespan. Investment in nutrition and early learning during critical developmental periods yields returns manifesting not merely in academic achievement but in lifelong productivity, health outcomes, and social functioning. Early childhood represents a period of maximum developmental plasticity—where modest investments generate exponential returns through enhanced cognitive capacity.
Beyond formal educational systems, widespread health literacy initiatives would fundamentally reconfigure the relationship between individuals and their biological processes. Such programs would address preventable conditions—obesity, diabetes, smoking-related illnesses—that currently consume vast healthcare resources through behavioral modification rather than medical intervention. This approach recognizes that many contemporary pathologies emerge not from microbial invasion but from informational deficiencies that distort health behaviors.
The redirection of military resources toward education represents not merely fiscal reallocation but conceptual transformation—replacing systems designed to respond to external threats with infrastructures that nurture internal potentials. This shift acknowledges that security emerges not merely from defensive capacity but from the cultivation of human capabilities that prevent threats from materializing.
Similarly, investments in sanitation infrastructure, clean water systems, and nutritional security could effectively eradicate infectious diseases that currently claim millions of lives annually—cholera, tuberculosis, and malaria exist not because of technological impossibility but resource maldistribution. Even the highest estimate, by the OECD in 2022: "To achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all by 2030" -- $1 trillion per year -- less than half of what was spent on war in 2024.
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The redirection of global military and border security budgets toward preventive medicine, education, clean water and sanitation represents not merely fiscal reallocation but paradigmatic transformation—replacing systems designed for destruction and separation with infrastructures that nurture human potential. This reconfiguration would enable the elimination of major infectious diseases, provision of universal healthcare access, establishment of universal basic education, and enhancement of economic productivity—all while requiring only a fraction of currently misdirected resources.
This shift would constitute one of the most profound transformations in human history, preventing hundreds of millions of premature deaths while simultaneously enhancing global prosperity and stability. The arithmetic is unambiguous: current allocations toward military and border security systems represent not rational distribution but pathological misallocation—directing resources toward systems that address symptoms while neglecting underlying causes.
The redirection of these resources would manifest not merely as quantitative improvement but qualitative transformation—replacing a conception of security predicated on the capacity for violence with one founded on the nurturance of human flourishing. This reconfiguration invites us to consider not merely alternative budgetary allocations but alternative conceptions of societal purpose, collective wellbeing, and human potential.
Nimubona, Alexandre, Innocent Yandemye, Chartière Nigaba, and Beatrice Abura. (2025). Global Strategies for Implementing Health Financing Equity – a State-of-the-Art Review of Political Declarations. International Journal for Equity in Health 24, no. 1 (February 15, 2025): 45. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12939-025-02404-7.
SIPRI: STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL, PEACE RESEARCH INSTITUTE, and SIPRI. (2024). Global Military Spending Surges amid War, Rising Tensions and Insecurity | SIPRI, April 22, 2024. https://www.sipri.org/media/press-release/2024/global-military-spending-surges-amid-war-rising-tensions-and-insecurity.
Statista. (2025). Diabetes Health Care Costs Worldwide by Region 2021. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://www.statista.com/statistics/241831/health-care-costs-due-to-diabetes-worldwide-by-region/.
UNESCO. (2025). Pricing the Right to Education: The Cost of Reaching New Targets by 2030 | Unesco IIEP Learning Portal. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://learningportal.iiep.unesco.org/en/library/pricing-the-right-to-education-the-cost-of-reaching-new-targets-by-2030.
WHO. (2025). SDG Target 3.8 Achieve Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Accessed March 7, 2025. https://www.who.int/data/gho/data/major-themes/universal-health-coverage-major.
WHO. (2025). WHO Estimates Cost of Reaching Global Health Targets by 2030. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://www.who.int/news/item/17-07-2017-who-estimates-cost-of-reaching-global-health-targets-by-2030.
OECD. (2022). Financing a Water Secure Future. OECD Studies on Water. Accessed March 7, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1787/a2ecb261-en
Beyond immediate health and educational impacts, the redirection of military and border security expenditures toward preventive medicine and education would generate profound economic and social stabilization effects—creating systems of resilience that address not merely symptoms but underlying causes of societal dysfunction.
Preventive medicine generates not merely improved health outcomes but substantial economic efficiencies—interrupting pathological processes before they require costly interventions. Diabetes treatment alone currently consumes over $1 trillion annually in global healthcare expenditures; effective preventive programs addressing nutritional patterns, physical activity, and early screening would substantially reduce this burden. This reduction represents not merely fiscal savings but resource liberation—enabling allocation toward productive rather than reactive purposes.
A healthier, more educated population demonstrates substantially enhanced productivity—generating economic value through creative contribution rather than consuming resources through illness management. This enhanced productivity manifests not merely in traditional economic metrics but in innovation capacity, entrepreneurial activity, and adaptive resilience to changing conditions. Human capital development through health and education represents not expenditure but investment—generating returns that materialize throughout economic systems.
The allocation of resources toward preventive medicine and education addresses root causes of conflict and forced migration—creating conditions of stability that reduce the perceived necessity for military intervention or border fortification. Educational access correlates strongly with reduced violent conflict, crime rates, and political instability; similarly, health security reduces displacement pressures that currently manifest in migration flows.
This approach acknowledges that genuine security emerges not from systems of exclusion but from the cultivation of conditions that render such systems unnecessary.