'Shells'
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to bring European figures together to create a divisible figure for the whole EU.
OK so I'm not sure that line makes sense in any known European language (gaelic perhaps?)
The figures for all the European states could be made into one figure.
The figure for the US could be divided by 52.
Then we'd have a set of roughly comparable figures.
But it'd be meaningless. Because the USA is a country, and Europe isn't. There are huge variations - I don't see what the value is of comparing "European" (whatever that means) spending with that of the US.
I don't understand the anti-globalization thing, I must admit. Sounds like a case of rich First World nations saying to the Third World, "We've got ours, so go away and toil in the fields your whole life. You're not bright enough not to be expoited even though our ancestors soon organized and got themselves better lives, so forget those factory jobs and upward mobility and all that, just stay stuck and isolated like you are." Kind of patronizing. Not all local culture is worth preserving--FGM, slavery, corruption--that kind of stuff.
Ja Tim, wie sachst du.
You know how Australia pays everyone to take a year of travel before college? (That's how I understood it from the Australian guy in the next airplane seat, anyway.)
Bwah! I think it's safe to say the guy in the next seat was taking the piss, mate.
Ja Tim, wie sachst du.
What does this mean?
Or compare defense spending as a proportion of GDP which is the only meaningful way.Or compare defense spending on per head of population basis.
The unit of comparison has to be sovereign territory, ie. nation states or countries.
Understanding Military Expenditure from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
UNITED NATIONS- - Breaking long-held traditions of confidentiality, an increasingly large number of developing nations have decided to voluntarily declare their military budgets to the United Nations. The world body has "recorded an unprecedented increase in the number of governments reporting their defense spending’, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters Monday. Of 191 UN member states, more than 100 have reported their military spending at least once, while 77 states have submitted their annual reports this year, up from 61 in 2001 and 35 in 2000.
The regular declarations have come mostly from Western nations, including the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Canada. But this year's annual report includes declarations from Malaysia, Romania, Belarus, Mongolia, Albania and Mauritius. Other developing nations who have gone public with their military budgets are Jordan, Lebanon, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines and Thailand.
The budgets detail money spent on aircraft, artillery, armored vehicles, the costs of building air and naval bases, of operating and maintaining military equipment and the costs for military personnel and reservists.
The world's biggest military spender continues to be the United States, whose defense budget for 2001 was 327.5 billion dollars, according to its declaration. The London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies says the US budget has risen to an estimated 343 billion dollars in 2002, up from 300 billion dollars in 2000.
Other big spenders in 2001 include Germany (24.3 billion dollars), Russia (9.2 billion dollars), France (28.4 billion dollars), and Britain (36.8 billion dollars).
While transparency grows, military spending has risen to about 850 billion dollars per year, "an amount approaching average Cold War spending levels", warned UN Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala. The spending is "not only diverting precious financial, material and human resources from productive to non-productive pursuits, but was also jeopardizing humanity's common natural environment and the prospects for social and economic development of all nations", he said.
Table of military spending by country Table prepared by Center for Defense Information. Sources: International Institute for Strategic Studies, Department of Defense
"For 45 years of the Cold War we were in an arms race with the Soviet Union. Now it appears we're in an arms race with ourselves."
Admiral Eugene Carroll, Jr., U.S. Navy (Ret.) Deputy Director. Center for Defense Information
moonlit - you need to close your link tag
Lalala - nothing to see here.
moonlit, just out of curiosity, do you have any stats on the size of the population of the US (and territories) vs Germany, and the area of the US (and territories) vs Germany?
is it ok?
Yes, it's fine now. It was by the time my last post went through.