Sydney J. Freedberg Jr., Breaking Defense: US Defense Budget Not That Much Bigger Than China, Russia: Gen. Milley
"I've seen comparative numbers of US defense budget versus China, US defense budget versus Russia," Gen. Milley said. "What is not often commented on is the cost of labor. We’re the best paid military in the world by a long shot. The cost of Russian soldiers or Chinese soldiers is a tiny fraction."
WASHINGTON: It’s become a commonplace to say the US spends much more on defense than any other country — but what if that’s not exactly true? Inspired by something Army Chief of Staff Mark Milley said to the Senate, I pulled together some numbers that suggest America’s superior spending power erodes dramatically when you compare actual purchasing power. Once you factor in how much the US military spends on pay and benefits for uniformed and civilian personnel — almost half the budget by some measures — as opposed to weapons, operations, and training, then China’s defense budget may actually be bigger.
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WNU Editor: Making these comparisons never satisfies anyone.
1 comment:
Makes perfect sense. You must adjust for PPP/salaries. A US soldier, on average, makes 2-5x more than a Russian or Chinese soldier of similar rank/seniority. More importantly, purchases of military equipment, ammunition, hardware and projects like F35 are so much more expensive that it puts the US at dangerous risk of losing their budget advantages because of cost overruns and Missmanagement. I have not seen one CEO or one congressman go to jail for the trillions lost over the last 20-30 years. All that money lost equates to deaths on the battlefield and deaths during avoidable hardware failures in peace times. We need oversight! !
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