True. And we did not have welfare programs, food stamps, Medicaid, disability insurance, Pell grants, agricultural subsidies, or social insurance programs like Social Security or Medicare.
In 1913, the military budget was $400 million. Today, it's $700 billion.
In 1913, the military budget was $400 million. Today, it's $700 billion.
Interesting. In 1913 that $400 million included a navy of 214 ships while today $700 billion includes a navy of 284 ships. In 1913 GDP was $39.1 billion so the military budget would have been just over 1% of GDP, today it would be roughly 3.75% of GDP. Of course a great deal of our defense spending goes to cover for other nations which shirk their own responsibilities, for example the top 6 European members of NATO have a combined GDP almost 10 times that of Russia.
Back in 1913 federal spending ws 2.5% of GDP while local was 5% (state was 0.8%). For 2010 the figures were 23% federal versus 11% local, local governments spend more than double as a percentage of GDP what they spent in 1913, while the ratio to federal spending has flipped to being half of what was spent by local governments to more than twice as much. And state governments have gone from less than 1% of GDP to 10%. The trend is clear, that government has been grabbing a larger share of GDP over the past century, and spending at levels of government with less accountability.
The people serve the government, and the government is electing a new people who are more reliable in rubber stamping what the government wants at the ballot box. A great deal of welfare spending is to support the new people the government is electing.
I'll pit one of today's ships against all 214 1913's ships and sink every one.
Excepting aircraft carriers, any other ship would likely run out of ammo before it could sink 200 WWII ships. Maybe it could flee the rest, but if not, it'd lose.
