Bush Signs $400 Bn Defence Bill

[ilw]

Defence spending is an interesting topic, a lot of factors contribute, the wealth of the country, its overseas commitments, its neighbours, its foreign policy etc

Richer countries usually spend more, and more as a percentage of the money they have (i suppose thats the equivalent of disposable income), also larger countries tend to spend more.
America's spending is excessive, but to an extent it reflects its economy, geography and political situation. I'm not saying its right to be spending hundreds of billions on defence and i'm strongly against the production or design of small and usable nuclear weapons or the star wars project. But the sums aren't as ludicrous as they first seem.


Defence spending / GDP % :source Greek ministry of defence (they're very proud of spending lots of their money on defence )

France 2,6%
Greece 4,9%
Italy 1,9%
Luxemburg 0,8%
Holland 1,9%
Portugal 2,2%
Spain 1,3%
Sweden 2,2%
United Kingdom 2,4%
EU Average 1,83%
US 3.3%


Figures above and below don't match because they're figures for different years (only a couple of years apart)

Top 5 countries by dollars spent on defence for each citizen.
Source: CDI and CIA World Factbook (CIA).

Top 5 countries by percentage of GDP spent on defence.
Source: CDI and CIA.

Top 5 countries by million dollars spent defending each km of border.
Source: CDI and CIA.

Top 5 countries by thousands of dollars spent defending each km of territory.
http://www.steve.burrow.name/article/weapons.shtml

Edit:

My conclusion having looked at all these figures is that some countries are spending a bit more on defence than they can justify for border and internal security. I guess they are taking their wider role as global policemen very seriously - like it or not. But as a final test I went back over the various Top 5 polls to see which country figures most frequently in each one. The answer was not, surprisingly, the USA or Israel (which featured in 4 out of the 5 poles shown here) - but rather the UK.

(from same site as pics)

I just don't see how bombing a nuclear bomb can result in any good.

Seems a bit of a dodgy gamble, but I thought nukes aren't supposed to go off even if they're blown up?

[FatBastard]

Makes you wonder where the money goes, or into whose pockets. I found this article about US health care spending ..

In 2000, U.S. per capita health spending was $4,631, an increase of 6.3 percent over 1999. In addition to being 44 percent higher than Switzerland's per capita spending, the U.S. level was 83 percent higher than neighboring Canada and 134 percent higher than the median of $1,983 for the 30 industrialized countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

... and yet ....

... yet Americans are not necessarily receiving more care.

...and ...

Supported by the Commonwealth Fund, the study suggests that the difference in spending is caused mostly by higher prices for health care goods and services in the United States - not increased use in those services.

The capitalist system in full swing?

Source.