Accessory to War

by Neil DeGrasse Tyson

  35. Nan Tian, Aude Fleurant, Pieter D. Wezeman, and Siemon T. Wezeman, “Trends in World Military Expenditure, 2016,” fact sheet, SIPRI, Apr. 2017, www.sipri.org/sites/default/files/Trends-world-military-expenditure-2016.pdf; World Bank, “World Development Indicators Database: Gross Domestic Product 2016,” Apr. 17, 2017, databank.worldbank.org/data/download/GDP.pdf (both accessed Oct. 29, 2017). SIPRI’s estimate for world military expenditure in 2016 is $1.686 trillion; the World Bank’s figure for 2016 global GDP is $75.642 trillion.

  36. In 1943, while military spending on the war represented 42 percent of America’s income, it represented 43 percent of Japan’s, 55 percent of Britain’s, and 70 percent of Germany’s. See Mark Harrison, “The Economics of World War II: An Overview,” chap. 1 of Economics of World War II, 34, “Table 1-8: The military burden, 1939–44 (military outlays, per cent of national income),” www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/staff/mharrison/public/ww2overview1998.pdf (accessed Sept. 23, 2017). “Table 1-11: War losses attributable to physical destruction (per cent of assets)” indicates that Germany lost 17 percent of its industrial assets and Japan 34 percent (42).

  37. Stephen Daggett, “Costs of Major U.S. Wars,” report, June 29, 2010, Congressional Research Service, 2, fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RS22926.pdf (accessed Sept. 23, 2017). From Dec. 1941 through Sept. 1945, total US military spending was $296 billion in then-current dollars. In a note to “Table 1: Military Costs of Major U.S. Wars, 1775–2010,” Daggett specifies that the estimates are based on US government budget data and include the costs of military operations only, not veterans’ benefits, interest on war-related debt, or assistance to allies.

  Converted to constant 2016 dollars (in terms of simple purchasing power), $296 billion—call it $300 billion—in World War II–era dollars becomes $4 trillion, or $75 billion per year, according to MeasuringWorth, www.measuringworth.com, a public-service website founded by two American professors of economics. However, Harrison emphasizes that a more meaningful conversion should take into account the rate of war spending relative to nominal GDP—that is, the change in prices multiplied by the change in output. Between World War II and now, nominal GDP increased ninetyfold.

  38. Benito Mussolini, “Plan for the New Italian Economy (1936),” quoted in John Bellamy Foster, “Neofascism in the White House,” Monthly Review 68:11 (Apr. 2017), monthlyreview.org/2017/04/01/neofascism-in-the-white-house (accessed May 9, 2017).

  39. “Discretionary Spending 2015: $1.1 Trillion,” pie chart, National Priorities Project, www.nationalpriorities.org. Analyses of science-related funding are at, e.g., “Research by Science and Engineering Discipline: Physical Sciences Research Funding, 1978–2014,” bar graph, American Association for the Advancement of Science, www.aaas.org/page/research-science-and-engineering-discipline; “Survey of Federal Funds for Research and Development Fiscal Years 2015–17—Table 2. Summary of Federal Obligations and Outlays for Research, Development, and R&D Plant, by Type of R&D, Performer, and Field of Science and Engineering: FYs 2014–17,” National Science Foundation, ncsesdata.nsf.gov/fedfunds/2015/html/FFS2015_DST_002.html; Jeffrey Mervis, “Data Check: U.S. Government Share of Basic Research Funding Falls Below 50%,” Science, Mar. 9, 2017, www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/data-check-us-government-share-basic-research-funding-falls-below-50. Data on military spending is at “Military Expenditure: World Military Spending in 2016: Military Spending Graphics,” SIPRI, www.sipri.org/research/armament-and-disarmament/arms-transfers-and-military-spending/military-expenditure. (All accessed May 9, 2017.)

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