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UK exports in 2017 were ~£617bn [0] meaning £9bn in arms exports represented about 1% of exports and about 0.5% of the UK economy. Personally I would not descri

UK exports in 2017 were ~£617bn [0] meaning £9bn in arms exports represented about 1% of exports and about 0.5% of the UK economy. Personally I would not describe 0.5% as "a large part" of anything, I would describe it as "a small part", but if you think otherwise we can agree to disagree [0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpayments/timeseries/ktmw https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/nationalaccounts/balanceofpay... m

justin66 8y ago
> UK exports in 2017 were ~£617bn How odd that the CIA World Factbook was so far off. Thanks. > Personally I would not describe 0.5% as "a large part" of anything, I would describe it as "a small part", but if you think otherwise we can agree to disagree I think you're linguistically right, but all this sperging out about the distinction between being a large part of something versus being a small part of an extremely large whole is perhaps missing the point a bit. To Y_Y's original point, which isn't really about the total size of the UK's economy and was of course a bit harsh: a taste of nine billion pounds is more than enough money to cause politicians to behave dishonorably or irrationally and to make some powerful few rich beyond the dreams of avarice. There are some pretty nasty examples of what happens when a slice of that kind of money is at stake in the US government's budgeting process, and I imagine the UK is at least similar.