Is the West History?

[DominicJ]

Does anyone have to hand Russian Military spending, as a percentage of GDP?

As far as I'm aware, it never changed, from 40%

http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/dow ... =c&local=s

US defence spending is readily available, and really doesnt show a concerted effort to get the russians to spend themselves to death...

[featherstick]

Your chart shows that in 1953 US defence spending nearly doubled. That has to be seen in the context of the Korean war (a proxy war) and the sharpening of internal and external rhetoric.

Russian military spending was about 70% of the USA's from 1950 -1990, in a more resource-constrained environment. However the whole society was militarised in a way that we find difficult to understand, so it was probably higher. Also, it was incredibly inefficiently spent, and much of it was robbed.

[kenneal - lagger]

It's awful that there can be such an obvious division in this age, I don't remember such a difference when I was in my early twenties.

Being below average height is not a really great burden in the overall scheme of things.

Still, that said, it's been shown that tall people tend to do better in business. Therefore, on average, tall parents will be richer and so children in affluent areas will on average be taller.

The difference in height could be due to the mothers smoking during pregnancy. That's a lot more prevalent in poor mums than more affluent one's and is a matter of choice.

Most of the super rich that I have met have been small people with a chip on their shoulder. I also know a lot of small people without a chip on their shoulder but they don't have as much money.