I don’t have any special reason for posting this except that Congress is getting ready to vote on an override of Donald Trump’s veto of the annual defense spending bill. So here is defense spending over the past 50 years:
It goes up and down during wars and peacetime, but ever since we came down from the Vietnam peak it’s remarkable how steady it’s been. The American populace seems willing to spend about $2000 each for defense, and that changes only modestly and temporarily over time.
