Re: Campaign Economics--Real Deal

Nope, had that wrong. Since the Korean war, U.S. defense spending has
been
fairly flat. The greatest spending (since Korea) was 8.5% GNP during
Kennedy, otherwise it's been about 5% (as I thought). Defense comprises
(approx.) 25% of the current budget (total). Currently, the defense
budget
is about 260 billion dollars. My previous USSR guess was off as well. At
the height of the Cold War, the USSR spent about 14% GNP on defense.
Other
NATO nations spent about 3-4% GNP during the Cold War (70s-80s) and
probably a bit less now. During WW2, most nations spent 30-50% GNP on
defense. Another interesting tidbit is that, as a rule of thumb, 30% of
the
production cost of a weapon system (ship, plane, etc.) is the
development
cost.  

At 03:35 PM 5/5/97 PDT, you wrote:
>I was wondering if anyone has any records of how much of the economy
>(proportion) was devoted to defense during the following times:
>A. Peace
>B. Cold-War
>C. War.
>
>	 This would be used to determine the levels at which a campeign
would
>start.  For example, if everyone knew trouble was on the horizon, then
they
>would have forces that they could support for a cold war, then get more
>money devoted to a hot war, but would now be buying green troops etc.
>
>
>

-----
Paul J. Calvi Jr.
tanker@rahul.net

"Objective, Offense, Mass, Economy of Force, Maneuver, Unity of Command,
Security, Surprise, Simplicity"

15SEP16