guns and butter

alternative guns or butter · alternative guns versus butter

1. pluralplural onlyDefense and social government spending, especially when seen as a trade-off.

   With colleagues clamouring for money, it suits him to say we cannot have both guns and butter.

   2001 October 1, David Walker, “Guns or butter? A hard choice for Gordon Brown”, in The Guardian

   2 more examples

   Having to service demands for both guns and butter, the US economy began to overheat; inflation ensued.

   2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 2, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order […] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part I. The New Deal Order, 1930–1980

   The experience of “military Keynesianism” globally, and across history, has never been about guns or butter, but guns and butter.

   2025 July 7, Shahin Vallée, Joseph de Weck, “Europe does not have to choose between guns and butter. There is another way”, in The Guardian, →ISSN