Statistics blog

You know that feeling when you get some money and you know you can buy whatever you want? It's an awesome feeling right? But what if you went overboard? Well that's exactly what the Government has done with the military. We all know that the United States has a bunch of I owe you's, she loves borrowing and spending money! But it has changed. Spending in the United States (which still accounted for 37% of total global military spending in 2013) has gone down in recent years. The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) measures annual military spending for most of the world's armed countries, guess who came out on top! According to SIPRI, the United States spent $618 billion on its military last year,that is literally 3 times its $171 billion budget. Not only is the U.S. going overboard on its budget, it's first on the list! According to SIPRI.


 The $619 billion military expenditure in the U.S. nearly outpaced the combined spending of every other country on this list in 2013. USA Today stated "Reduction in military expenditures was due to a greater emphasis on fiscal austerity and the winding down of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, military expenditure fell nearly 6% in 2012, followed by a 7.8% reduction in 2013. Despite efforts to curtail the size of the military, the U.S. supplied nearly $6.2 billion in arms to foreign allies, a figure second only to Russia. The U.S. was also a large arms importer, bringing in $759 million worth of arms, among the higher rates worldwide". Not only the United States supplying more during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it was also supplying weapons to close allies! I really do think that its a ridiculously large amount of money, but some questions remain. Does all this money spending give us the edge in warfare?

Frohlich, Thomas C. "Countries Spending the Most on the Military." USAtoday.com. Thomas C. Frohlich and Alexander Kent, 24/7 Wall St., 12 July 2014. Web. <http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fstory%2Fmoney%2Fbusiness%2F2014%2F07%2F12%2Fcountries-spending-most-on-military%2F12491639%2F>.