NationStates Jolt Archive

I have noted that many people that have a billion people or more have a befense spending greater than the entire world's in 2003 (( something like 956 billion according to wikipedia.... that got it from somewhere else)) How does this work? Does it mean that people can create large PMT armies quickly or is it just something that people dont use

in my case it means a really really creepy intelligence bureau.

It is used to to mainly buy equipment from storefronts.

I have noted that many people that have a billion people or more have a befense spending greater than the entire world's in 2003 (( something like 956 billion according to wikipedia.... that got it from somewhere else)) How does this work? Does it mean that people can create large PMT armies quickly or is it just something that people dont use

The world has to wory about hunger and such. The NS leaders have to worry about a paragraph of complaint.

The world has to wory about hunger and such. The NS leaders have to worry about a paragraph of complaint.

hm?

Well, also take in to account that the US makes up roughly half of that total and it only has 300 million people. Not only that, but that $450 billion the US spends is less than 4% of its GDP. So, a country with an economy developed on the scale of the US's and a population of one billion could easily have a defense budget of $1-1.5 trillion without impacting its economic efficiency or budget realism too noticeably.

Now, spending an amount equal to 15 or 20% of GDP without any problems is probably ridiculous, at least if you want your economy to be highly developed with large per capita income. You'd have more of a Soviet-style situation of weak economic growth and low living standards.

According to NSTracker (http://nstracker.retrogade.com/index.php?nation=tolvan), my nation of 583 million spends $637 billion on defence. Since I RP my nation as somewhat isolationist, I have a small militray, less than .25% of my population, but they are very well trained and equipped.

you also have to realize that some of these countries have more population than the entire world, so...

....yea my GDP is 22,000 or something half of the united states and I spend 26% on military. Still with the facts and figures thrown around you can take any of these canceled projects that the governments have and use them. ((like star wars.... thought I'm sure someone uses that already))

I buy equipment from storefronts.

A huge part of the RW is third world nations. It makes sense that a nation that's as big as China, with a first-world economy could afford a tremendous military.

Generally, spending more than about 10% of the GDP on the military is a bad idea, as it harms the economy and can actually lead to a worse military (because there's little manufacturing left to create weapons for it). However, 10% of a NS style GDP -- with nations of eight billion plus -- might well be larger than the GDP of the planet Earth. Hence, such nations can afford larger and higher-quality militaries than most real-life nations, explaining NS's five-digit navies, supercapital ships, ortillery satellites, and super-soldiers.

Due to the simplistic approach of the NS game, however, it's possible for nations to spend as much as 82% (that I've seen) of their GDP on the military, while still maintaining a 'Frightening' economy. Example. (http://nstracker.retrogade.com/index.php?nation=steel+and+fire) That kind of thing is not possible in real life, let alone practical; spending more than about $25 trillion on the military is in any case wasteful, as by that point the number of tanks, guns, ships, and planes you could buy would far exceed the number of people you could draft into your military to crew them.

tl;dr: Words.

It also depends a great deal on those answers and national priorities you set for the nation at its inception. And Nationstates seems to hate non-capitalist countries. In fact a loose handed fascist style government that favors industry will make your economy soar. And if you choose defense as you last priority at budget time, you end up with a 20+ percent military spending without wanting it.

But what the heck, go fight a war...