US makes up c 40% of global military spending, 10x Russia, 3x China
The United States spent $877 billion on its military in 2022, nearly 40% of the global total, 10 times more than Russia ($86.4 billion), and three times more than China ($292 billion).
The United States was responsible for nearly 40% of global military spending in 2022.
The US military spent $877 billion, 10 times more than Russia ($86.4 billion), and three times more than China ($292 billion).
US military expenditure in 2022 was bigger than the next 10 largest spenders combined.
This means the Pentagon spent more than China, Russia, India, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, France, South Korea, Japan, and Ukraine combined.
This is according to data published this April by the Sweden-based Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).
SIPRI calculated that the planet's total military expenditure was $2.24 trillion in 2022.
The United States, at $877 billion, thus made up 39.2% of total global military spending.
The US-led NATO alliance spent a total of $1.23 trillion, meaning it was responsible for just over half (55%) of global military spending.
SIPRI reported that real military spending in Europe, adjusted for inflation, is at the highest levels since 1989, toward the end of the first cold war.
Europe is the region with the fastest growing military spending, the study found.
Business Insider noted that the US federal government only dedicated $76.4 billion in discretionary spending for education in 2022, meaning it spent over 10 times as much on the military.
The Joe Biden administration has requested a mere $90 billion for education in 2024, compared to $842 billion for the military, Business Insider pointed out.
Moreover, all of these figures could be very conservative, given the US Department of Defense is notoriously opaque in its accounting.
Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon made $35 trillion in “accounting adjustments” in 2019, as well as $30.7 trillion in adjustments in 2018.
These irregularities in the Pentagon's accounting are larger than the entire US economy.
The US Department of Defense has failed every audit it has ever tried.
I saw the stats some weeks ago and I was pretty impress by the proportions.
But I think that you guys should also add that American war industries make up a big chuck of GDP in USA and this is the first reason they keep starting new wars, Coups, proxy or not.
The second reason is that since the bloody new century (the one where all the hopes were destroyed by Bush & The Gang) wars are made to cover up huge economical problems, recessions. If you were old enough in 2001 you could remember that, as now or a year ago, we were at the edge of e new recession, all financial news were talking about that risk. But then magically Nazi Bush et al, came up with 9/11 then Afghanistan and Iraq wars.... Et voillà!
So USA has always a war in its hat instead of a rabbit...
P.S.
Lehman Bros and Co could have failed some years before 2007/8 if there was no 9/11.... remember, remember the 11 September!
All these expenses for what? For an army that has consistently lost every conflict in which it has been involved (except perhaps in Grenada) but believes itself to be the best army in the world. Hollywood and TV series sell the image of the best soldiers in the world, especially the Marines and the Special Forces. In reality, a series of retreats, with their tails down, and traumatized soldiers.
(For those who don't know, World War II was mostly won by the Soviet army. The American army faced a German army that had little to do with the one that had swept through the French army in May 1940. And yet, this exhausted army panicked the American command in the Ardennes. We could also come back to the Italian campaign where we cannot praise the American strategists, and I will throw a modest veil over the battle of the Pacific).
The American taxpayers pay the price of a Roll Royce, which turns out to be a cardboard cart.