> being like the USSR which drove itself into the ground by spending everyone's money (trying to keep up with the US)
So US will spend their money on trying to keep up with... China? Russia? Japan? India?
So US will spend their money on trying to keep up with... China? Russia? Japan? India?
At the moment the US is outspending everyone combined. As they catch up and economically and technologically it gets exponentially harder for the US to maintain their current dominance. China also gets more bang for it's buck, it's only trying to assert dominance of a small area but the US is spread globally.
A better analogy might be pre-WW1 Britain that tried to maintain a navy at least the size of the next world powers combined.