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the country with the biggest economy ends up with the biggest army But that isn’t true. Look at the size of the North Korean army.

by gaius 9y ago

AmericanChopper 9y ago
Are you actually suggesting that it’s larger than the US army?
- gaius 9y ago
  US Army 476,000 regulars, North Korea 1.1M. So yes, twice as big in terms of people.
  - AmericanChopper 9y ago
    You're comparing the entire NK armed forces to one US branch. The entire USA armed forces is about 1.3M active personnel, with about 800K reserves. Which the US manages to achieve without conscription or slavery. If you also consider equipment and vehicles (which you absolutely should), then NK is not even remotely close. The number of naval ships, air crafts, tanks, armored combat vehicles, APCs, UAVs , etc... that the US has is so far ahead of any other country that it's not even worth trying to draw a comparison. You've made an overstated example of a single outlier. There's outliers at the other end too, with both countries that are too dysfunctional to have any national security at all, and countries that simply ride the coattails of their stronger allies. In any case, this is all entirely irrelevant to my point, which is that armed forces do contribute measurable value to society, and that the level of investment in them is typically proportional to the level of security a country requires.
    - gaius 9y ago
      You're comparing the entire NK armed forces to one US branch. No I am not https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries...
      - AmericanChopper 9y ago
        Yes you are. >US Army 476,000 regulars And that number goes up to ~1.3M once you add in the Air Force, Navy and Marines. And as I've said, you're still only comparing numbers of service personnel, and ignoring capability, equipment and other resources. You're also ignoring the point I was making entirely.
        gaius 9y ago
        You said the country with the biggest economy ends up with the biggest army. That is demonstrably false, as shown in that Wikipedia article. In fact, there is barely any correlation between the size of a country’s economy and its army. You're also ignoring the point I was making entirely. Since your facts are wrong, there isn’t even a point to ignore

the country with the biggest economy ends up with the biggest army But that isn’t true. Look at the size of the North Korean army.

by gaius 9y ago

the country with the biggest economy ends up with the biggest army But that isn’t true. Look at the size of the North Korean army.

AmericanChopper 9y ago

Are you actually suggesting that it’s larger than the US army?

gaius 9y ago
US Army 476,000 regulars, North Korea 1.1M. So yes, twice as big in terms of people.
- AmericanChopper 9y ago
  You're comparing the entire NK armed forces to one US branch. The entire USA armed forces is about 1.3M active personnel, with about 800K reserves. Which the US manages to achieve without conscription or slavery. If you also consider equipment and vehicles (which you absolutely should), then NK is not even remotely close. The number of naval ships, air crafts, tanks, armored combat vehicles, APCs, UAVs , etc... that the US has is so far ahead of any other country that it's not even worth trying to draw a comparison. You've made an overstated example of a single outlier. There's outliers at the other end too, with both countries that are too dysfunctional to have any national security at all, and countries that simply ride the coattails of their stronger allies. In any case, this is all entirely irrelevant to my point, which is that armed forces do contribute measurable value to society, and that the level of investment in them is typically proportional to the level of security a country requires.
  - gaius 9y ago
    You're comparing the entire NK armed forces to one US branch. No I am not https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries_by_number_of_military_and_paramilitary_personnel&mobileaction=toggle_view_desktop https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_countries...
    - AmericanChopper 9y ago
      Yes you are. >US Army 476,000 regulars And that number goes up to ~1.3M once you add in the Air Force, Navy and Marines. And as I've said, you're still only comparing numbers of service personnel, and ignoring capability, equipment and other resources. You're also ignoring the point I was making entirely.
      - gaius 9y ago
        You said the country with the biggest economy ends up with the biggest army. That is demonstrably false, as shown in that Wikipedia article. In fact, there is barely any correlation between the size of a country’s economy and its army. You're also ignoring the point I was making entirely. Since your facts are wrong, there isn’t even a point to ignore