Military Spending

Military Spending

By: Alex Mauch

We all know that America has the best military in the world, but most people don’t understand the costs of that military. The U.S. spent a grand total of $596 Billion on defensive measures in 2015 alone. And the spending will only increase. The proposed defense budget for 2017 is $859 Billion, of which, $617 Billion Dollars will be spent on military expenditures. The remaining $242 Billion of the proposed budget will be split between Veterans spending, foreign policy, and foreign aid. The U.S. ranks #1 for military spending by far. No other country even compares to how much the U.S. spends, in fact, the U.S. spends more money on defense than the next top 7 countries.

Whenever our military spending increases, it is either due to inflation, or due to foreign affairs. Throughout all of World War II, the U.S. only spent roughly $296 Billion from 1941-1945, and today, we spend more than twice that amount in only 1 year. Although the amount of money that the U.S. spends on its defense budget today seems incredibly high, it is actually much less than what most people would expect. The total military spending during WWII hasn't taken price changes into effect and as a result, have only presented Nominal GDP. In reality, the U.S. spent  41% of its GDP in the peak year of the war. That is equivalent to $4.3 Trillion in today’s standards compared to the $596 Billion that the U.S. spends today. In fact, since WWI, every war in our nation's history, in terms of GDP, has cost more than the wars fought post 9/11. Although it may seem ridiculous to increase military spending since the total debt is at an all time high, and continues to grow, the U.S. has been spending an average of 4.9% of it’s GDP in the past decade on the defensive budget, vs the 41% of the total GDP that the U.S. spent during WWII.

The demand for a safe country will never go away. But It is up to the government to decide how much to spend on guns and how much to spend on butter. How much is necessary to spend in order to keep the U.S. safe. In 2017 the proposed defensive spending budget is $859 Billion, but that is only 5% of the GDP, leaving room for 95% of the GDP to be spent wherever else is necessary.

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