News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing. Parent comment

Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by HDMI_Cable on Monday June 19, 2023 @02:34PM (#36394881)
> Another point I’d like to make is that modern European lifestyles exist partly due to American military hegemony, which has allowed European nations to redirect their defense spending to social programs.

I agree with you on your main point, but I'm not sure this one holds. Per NATO, defense spending is supposed to be around 2% of GDP, with most European countries spending 1-1.5% [1]. This is while the average European country spends ~20-25% of GDP on social services [2]. So if the US were to defund the military to 2% and leave Europe to their own devices, the budget shortfall would be a small portion of the amount European countries currently spend on all social programs.

--- [1]: https://www.statista.com/statistics/584088/defense-expenditu... [2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_social_we...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Europe has fallen behind America and the gap is growing by chrisco255 on Monday June 19, 2023 @04:20PM (#36396003)
That Wikipedia article you specify shows that U.S. already spends 18-20%, and then when you scroll down further to the Total Net Social spending, it rises to 30%, which places U.S. #2 in social spending as % of GDP already.
[ Parent | on HN ]