Hey, big spender
The United States is in dire straits when it comes to debt—more than $9 trillion at last count (and $8 trillion of that has been accumulated since 1980). Looking at the budget, the military is one of the big-ticket items (to put it in perspective, we spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined). Here’s a list of the countries that spend the most on their military, with approximate budgets:
| The United States (fiscal year ‘08) | $623 billion |
| China (2004) | $65 billion |
| Russia | $50 billion |
| France (2005) | $45 billion |
| Japan (2007) | $41.75 billion |
| Germany (2003) | $35.1 billion |
| Italy (2003) | $28.2 billion |
| South Korea (2003) | $21.1 billion |
| India (2005) | $19 billion |
| Saudi Arabia (2005) | $18 billion |
| World total | $1.1 trillion |
Source: author Chalmers Johnson (in “Going Bankrupt” article)
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