Defense Spending: 2005 v. 1953

Our graph is a follow-up to what Cactus said. Our graph shows defense spending (as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis) was 4.73% of GDP in 2005. In 1953, it was 14.73% of GDP. Then again real GDP in 2005 was about 5.3 times higher than real GDP in 1953. So after adjusting for inflation, it would seem we were spending 70% more in absolute terms in 2005 than we were in 1953 at the height of the Korean War. Wars are very expensive things – even if certain neocons four years ago didn’t think so.