April 23, 2013 4:43PM # Subsidizing the Security of Wealthy Allies By [Christopher A. Preble](https://www.cato.org/people/christopher-preble) --- SHARE How much does the United States spend on the military relative to our allies? A lot. A new Cato [video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3R01cqZwdw), produced by Cato multimedia gurus Caleb Brown and Austin Bragg, puts this comparison in perspective. The data jumps out of the Cato [infographic from last week](https://www.cato.org/blog/tax-dollars-work-subsidizing-security-wealthy-allies), and shows how we are subsidizing the security of our wealthy allies who can and should defend themselves. Instead, we provide for their security while they free-ride and spend their money on everything else (including bloated welfare states). Your tax dollars at work. Check out the video below. ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Department of Defense](https://www.cato.org/department-defense), [Downsizing Government](https://www.cato.org/downsizing-government) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).