>>507583640 (OP)The British nearly bankrupted themselves keeping up a huge modern fleet between 1900 and 1950.
Its purpose was what the USN does now, to protect its trade routes.and to protect its homeland from invasion.
So effectively it was paid for by the taxpayer to safeguard the economic interests of the ruling elite who owned the trade businesses..
Which is the case with the US military today.
The Brits spent so much on their fucking navy they didn't have the money to properly rearm when Germany started beefing up in the 1930's. Half the British army was stationed in India just fucking around just in case the natives got uppity ( again to secure British trading interests in India ), and much of the other half was scattered around the globe engaged in similar tasks. If there was a fucking sandbank the British would plant a flag on it and station a battalion of troops on top.
It was all a scam though. The cost to the British taxpayer for this navy and garrison troops was marginally larger than the profits to the British companies. Any economist would have looked at the books and said "This isn't worth the squeeze". Some did. But the British politicians were all in the pockets of British business and they wanted to protect their profits. That is where the US is today.
So when WW2 broke out the British, despite having a GDP four times larger than Germany, and an army numerically larger than Germany spent the entire war getting their stupid arses kicked, squandering their military forces trying to protect everything and eventually losing it all. Dumb bastards.
If you look up the history of the British battleships most of them never saw any real action, other than being sunk by mines, subs, and those pesky Japanese naval bombers. The stealth bombers will suffer a similar fate, basically doing fuck all for most of their service life.
