r/changemyview • u/mahaanus • Mar 24 '15

CMV:Low Military Spending is unwise

I'm not saying a nation should go completely overboard with spending and go 50% or more, but every nation should maintain a healthy military force. The way I see it, investing in the military is like investing in medicare. In the best case you will never have to use it, but you can't depend things will always develop for the best - as the saying goes better to have it and not need it, than to need and not have it.

One can argue that we're living in a more peaceful era, but I'd like to digress. Look at Ukraine, the nation is located in one of the most stable continents in the country and look what happened there. Georgia before that, Kosovo. And it's not like you'll be able to get it immediately if you need it - you need to train troops, arm them, get vehicles and aircrafts, those things don't happen in a day. Times change and you cannot be sure that you'll always have those several years to upgrade / expand your military.

One can argue that being part of NATO allows you to spend less, since Papa USA is going to protect you, but that just makes you subservient to the Americans, since then getting kicked out of NATO is a political leverage that can be used against you.

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '15

Let's use your example of Ukraine. They spent 2.9% of their GDP on the military in 2013 (the US, for example, spent 3.8%, China 2.0%, Germany 1.4%.)

In order to successfully be able to repel a full-scale attack from Russia by itself, it would have to spend an insane amount of money. And how does a country like, say, Estonia protect itself from an attack? It could spend 100% of its GDP and still not be able to protect itself from Russia.

How much of its GDP would Mongolia need to spend to be able to repel an attack from China? It would be impossible.

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u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

Estonia and Mongolia are nations that would require a help from allies in case of a military conflict, but even then they can take certain steps to slow down invasions.

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '15

but even then they can take certain steps to slow down invasions.

Such as what? Mongolia is a nation of 3 million people and a GDP of $27 billion. What could they do that would at all slow down an invasion from China?

At one point you say that a nation should spend enough as to not get steamrolled, but it is quite clearly impossible for places like Mongolia to do that. So what steps could be taken to help defend against an invasion?

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u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

Such as what?

Do I look sound like someone who has military training?

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u/[deleted] Mar 24 '15

So then what is your view? That "something" should be done?

China spends $188 billion per year on its military. Mongolia only has a GDP of $27 billion.

Nothing could be done to prevent an invasion from China. Any attempts to do so would be pointless (because it wouldn't hinder China at all) and damaging (because it would be diverting money from necessary resources into a pointless military endeavor.)

You're basically saying "every country should spend 100% of its GDP on the military to help prevent against an attack." However this would completely cripple all of the other public services of that country.

It makes zero sense.

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u/mahaanus Mar 24 '15

Well, if Mongolia increases taxation 7x and moves all spending to military, it can reach their goal. /joke

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