(C) Common Dreams
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U.S. Defense Spending in Historical and International Context [1]
["Michael E. O'Hanlon", 'Alberto Cavallo', 'Michael Klein', 'Melissa Kearney', 'Francine D. Blau', 'Gretchen Donehower', 'Karen Dynan', 'Jay C. Shambaugh', 'Daniel Bergstresser', 'Joshua D. Rauh']
Date: 2024-05-14 15:27:17+00:00
The graph above shows defense spending as a share of GDP. Military spending relative to GDP is arguably a more appropriate gauge of a country’s defense burden than the inflation-adjusted dollar amount, since a bigger economy can support greater spending.
The
$850 billion earmarked for defense spending in 2025 represents about
3% of GDP
This is a relatively low percentage as compared to the experience of the past three-quarters of a century. The United States economy has tended to grow faster than military spending, so defense spending as a share of GDP has been decreasing. In the 1950s, and through the Vietnam era, defense spending was typically 8 to 10% of GDP, about three times higher than current spending relative to the size of the economy. After the Vietnam drawdown, defense spending dropped to around 4.5% of GDP which is almost 50 percent bigger than the current share of national income spent on defense. Defense spending increased to about 6% of GDP during the Reagan Administration while the “peace dividend” brought spending down to roughly 3% of GDP during the Clinton Presidency. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan during the Bush and Obama administrations saw defense spending rise to about 4% of GDP.
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[1] Url:
https://econofact.org/u-s-defense-spending-in-historical-and-international-context
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