The Cost

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.

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