Disarmament: The Cost

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The world's military spending—$173.4 billion for 1968—now exceeds the total amount of all goods and services it produced in 1900. So reports the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The rate is accelerating. During the 1949-68 period, world military spending rose an average 5.9% a year, but for the past three years it has shot up by 8.9%. The U.S. outlay has jumped from an average annual rise of 7.7% to 12%. Last year the U.S. spent $79.6 billion for military purposes, followed by the Soviet Union with $39.8 billion. Together the two countries account for some 70% of the world's military spending.