Rome\'s decline and the U.S.

[Alexand96]

Both Rome and the USA suffered from chronic budget overspending on military. But the Romans did so while defending their borders, whereas the USA have overstretched their military obligations around the globe in recent years. The good news is: if they cut back these and concentrate in future only on vital threats to their national security, they can slow down their strategic and financial decline, perhaps even reverse it. The Romans who were threatened in their heartland did not have this option.

Unfortunately (for us Americans), I believe that is an oversimplification of a more complex issue. Although the US does spend more on military expenditures than any other nation on the planet, our defense budgets have often been exaggerated in comparison with other types of US government spending. I tried to find something a bit more recent, but as you can see in the pie chart attached, military spending in the US in 2010 was at about 20% of the entire federal budget. I believe this ratio, if anything, has already been shrinking in the past 2 years. Without steering this conversation too far off the "historical analysis" path over to the dark side (politics), I think it is quite clear to anyone with a cogent mind, on both sides of the aisle (or Atlantic for that matter), that the US is going to need to decrease spending on a wide range of programs in the years to come...unless we simply default.