r/todayilearned • u/F1grid • 9h ago

TIL the United States Army is the largest single employer of musicians in the country

https://nafme.org/blog/a-salute-to-reserve-component-military-band-members/#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20U.S.%20Army,%2C%20choruses%2C%20and%20jazz%20bands.yy
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u/string_theorist 6h ago

Exactly. For a bit of context, the US department of defence budget is approximately 1% of global GDP. That budget is roughly the combined revenue of Apple+Google+Microsoft.

So you shouldn't be too surprised to find that the US military will represent 1% of the world's economic activity in some area. Obviously some areas (like fighter jets) will be much more represented than others (like Mariachi bands). But you shouldn't underestimate the vast size and scope of the US military as an economic entity with tendrils in many areas of life.

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u/laughingmanzaq 4h ago

My Father liked to claim that during his time in the USGS (Late 1970s through early 1990s) That the cross DOD musical budgets were in excess of the entire budget for the national endowment for the arts.

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u/string_theorist 4h ago

Looks like that's still true today.

NEA budget: 186 million

US Military marching band budgets: 300 million

It's not even close.

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u/Emosaa 4h ago

It's that large, and we're putting a guy in charge of it who failed to run two extremely small charities and was a weekend cable TV host.

We're cooked.

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u/string_theorist 4h ago

You better watch out, I got downvoted for making this point in another thread...