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Whether the country spends too much, too little, or about the right amount on the military, armaments, and defense (GSS, since 1973). A second GSS line uses the split-ballot alternate wording.
Latest: 30% answered “Too little” in GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense, 2024.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense → web (2021).
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Spending on national defense → web (2021).
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each column is one survey wave, evenly spaced rather than to scale in time; hover for exact shares.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Spending on national defense → web (2021).
Groups differ from everyone by 8 points on average across all answers, in GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense.
| Line | Question | Match | How answers map |
|---|---|---|---|
| GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense | Spending on the military, armaments, and defense We are faced with many problems in this country, none of which can be solved easily or inexpensively. I'm going to name some of these problems, and for each one I'd like you to name some of these problems, and for each one I'd like you to tell me whether you think we're spending too much money on it, too little money, or about the right amount. First (READ ITEM A) . . . are we spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on (ITEM)?
I. The military, armaments and defense | identical | Too little → Too little; About right → About right; Too much → Too much |
| GSS: Spending on national defense | Spending on national defense We are faced with many problems in this country, none of which can be solved easily or inexpensively. I'm going to name some of these problems, and for each one I'd like you to tell me whether you think we're spending too much money on it, too little money, or about the right amount. First (READ ITEM A) . . . are we spending too much, too little, or about the right amount on (ITEM)?
I. National defense Caveat: GSS split-ballot alternate wording (e.g. 'assistance to big cities' vs. 'solving the problems of big cities'); a deliberate wording experiment, so levels differ systematically. | similar | Too little → Too little; About right → About right; Too much → Too much |
Shares of people whose answer maps onto these categories (non-answers and answers outside the scale are left out), because surveys differ in whether they offer “don’t know.” Each point is one survey wave at the middle of its field period. Lines from different surveys are never spliced together.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense → web (2021).
Groups differ from everyone by 7 points on average across all answers, in GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense.
Dashed lines mark changes in how interviews were done, which can shift answers: 1. GSS: Spending on the military, armaments, and defense → web (2021).
Subgroup charts are picked automatically. Of every breakdown in the data (party, ideology, age, sex, race, education, income, region, religion, and community type), these two put their groups furthest from everyone’s answers: the gap is averaged across all answer categories and waves, with each group weighted by its share of respondents. Party and ideology count as one choice, so the second chart shows a different kind of split. Groups with an effective sample under 50 in a wave are left out of that wave.