mahoney@bach.DEC (Toto I don't think we're in Kansas anymore.) (11/05/85)
>4) The United States has the largest budget in the world, followed by > the Soviet Union. Guess what comes third. Canada? China? > Japan? Nope. It is a department in the federal govt called > Health and Human Services, formerly HEW. Pick ANY country in the > world outside of the US and USSR and its *entire* budget is smaller > than HHS. Think of it! HHS, the department charged with helping > poor people, spends more money than all the money spent on anything > by the governments of Australia, or Canada, or Japan, or China, or > even any of the oil rich nations of OPEC! The last time I heard, the > DOD's budget is about half of what is spent on social welfare; about > 40% goes to people, and most of the rest of it goes to conventional > weapons. A very small percentage (I forgot what, though) is spent > on nukes. According to the _Information_Please_ Almanac_ of 1985 > the DOD's budget was $187 billion and for social welfare, at the > federal level alone, spending was over $366 billion (If you include > state and local, it jumps to over $592 billion). (The figures for > these are bigger now, but the only figures it lists for them are for > 1982). With $366 billion, you could buy the GNP of all of the United > Kingdom and still have change left over. Indeed there is a problem > with the defense spending. But, a bigger problem is with the > NON-DEFENSE spending, because more is spent there than almost > anywhere else. Whew! It may spend more money but we also have about the same population as Australia Canada and Japan combined. There is a famous quote that goes "Figures never lie but liars always figure". (I am not calling you liar though) My point is that it is too easy to use figures to supposedly prove a point. The real question is not how much is spent but how much of a percentage of the total budget is spent on a particular department. Even if the US spends 51% of the budget as some one said I believe all the nations you mentioned spend an even higher percentage. Look at Western Europe with the cradle to grave welfare states their percentage for social welfare is much higher then ours is. I don't have the figures unfortunately but I will get them if necessary. I also would be interested in the amount that the other governments spent per person as compared to the US. I am sure that you would find the US spending levels much lower then these other countries. When looking at historical figures I was taught that raw numbers mean nothing at all. You must look at the percentage of numbers over general populations and see how those numbers relate to other populations. You have tried to use raw figures which really have no historical balance. Brian Mahoney "To be or not to be that is question.. The answer is 41"