May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine!
Our Recent War Record
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The US allocates a lot of money to Defense. I'm not suggesting this level of spending is good or bad, right or wrong. My general opinion is that we definitely need to maintain a well-trained professional force with up-to-date equipment and technology. But we should curtail our ever-ready response to almost every conflict that pops up around the world, and pay more attention to our problems right here at home.
The fact is that we spend more on Defense than any other country by far. China is #2 in terms of dollars spent, and we outspent that county by 585% in 2010.
In terms of Defense Spending as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the US allocated 4.7% of our GDP to Defense, coming in at the #10 spot in 2009 (the most recent year for which data is available). In contrast, Saudi Arabia was #1, allocating 11.2% of their GDP to Defense. However, this translated to only $45245m - 1/15th of the amount the US spent on Defense.
Here is a breakdown of Defense spending in relation to our US Federal Spending for FY2010:
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Below are several other charts for your review. Click on the images for a larger view.
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SOURCES
- http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States
- http://www.sipri.org
