Monday, March 17, 2008

Another Stars and Stripes Story

So, I guess its the day for Stars and Stripes to piss me off. Well, not the paper, but the stories in it.

Apparently, we're upset that China is spending so much money on its military.

Well, a quick run of the numbers: China has a 2.68 trillion GDP, and spent 59 billion on defense.

The United States has a GDP of 130 trillion, and spent 419 on defense.

This means that 3% of our GDP is spent on defense, while 2% of China's GDP is spent on defense.

Also, direct from the White House website: "The 2006 request represents a 41-percent increase over 2001, and a 4.8-percent increase over 2005" Now - I call your attention to the "41% increase" - because apparently we're getting bent out of shape over China's 18% increase...

Also, China has been reporting a boom in its economy, and an increase in the GDP for the past few years, while the US... not so much

(I admit, I looked for an article on the bad economy)

1 comment:

Momagain said...

apparently we are borrowing the money we need to send everyone spending money to re-invigorate the economy - the "stimulus payment" you will get once you've filed your tax return. Guess who we're borrowing 36 billion from? Right, the Chinese!