by Trevor » Thu Jan 05, 2012 3:55 am
Okay, here's what I estimate the gap in military spending to be between China and the United States. I'm going to assume a 15 percent increase in China's military for 2012, just to keep things simple. That would boost their official military budget to 106 billion. Our baseline budget, not including the war in Afghanistan, is around 550.
Next, let's assume that both official budgets are an understatement. I'm going to say that China's real military budget is 70 percent higher than the official budget, making it 180.2 billion. As for the United States, I'm going to say 25 percent, bringing it to 687.5 billion.
After that, let's subtract salaries from there numbers. China's got about 4 million soldiers in total right now, and let's say the average is 3,000 dollars a year, so subtract 12 billion. That's 168 billion for them. As for us, subtract about 150 billion, making it 537.5 billion.
Based on this, the numbers are more even than some claim. The ratio is about 3.2-1. In conclusion, they will be able to match us in about 5 years, especially considering that we're taking an axe to our budget.
Okay, here's what I estimate the gap in military spending to be between China and the United States. I'm going to assume a 15 percent increase in China's military for 2012, just to keep things simple. That would boost their official military budget to 106 billion. Our baseline budget, not including the war in Afghanistan, is around 550.
Next, let's assume that both official budgets are an understatement. I'm going to say that China's real military budget is 70 percent higher than the official budget, making it 180.2 billion. As for the United States, I'm going to say 25 percent, bringing it to 687.5 billion.
After that, let's subtract salaries from there numbers. China's got about 4 million soldiers in total right now, and let's say the average is 3,000 dollars a year, so subtract 12 billion. That's 168 billion for them. As for us, subtract about 150 billion, making it 537.5 billion.
Based on this, the numbers are more even than some claim. The ratio is about 3.2-1. In conclusion, they will be able to match us in about 5 years, especially considering that we're taking an axe to our budget.