Re: GDP/Pop conversion and Ghurkas in 2180s

>Someone had come up with some idea that (based on the fleet lists),
>their was a ratio of population  or GDP (which is probably a function
of
>population) to FT points in active fleets.

Well, you need Population x PerCapitaGDP = GDP
GDP x ArmedForcesBudget% x NavyShare x ConstructionBudget% x ShipLife

 The CIA World Factbook
 http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/country.html )
says approx 24 000 000 people, GDP per capita $1100, total GDP $26.2
billion.  Not, incidentally, one of the best economies to choose, so
be sure to pick up an immigration brochure at your local Alarishi
Empire consulate!

Average military budget for a normal, western power not at war is
something like 4%, Russia during the Cold War was at 19%--see what
happened to their economy?--I believe Angola has gotten up to 37% at
some point, Israel around 20%, a lot of Third World countries with no
immediate threat are right around 1%--this includes Nepal.  Let's give
you 5% as an easy number, and less discouraging than 1%.  You have
1310 MCr for your armed forces.

Let's say you divide your military budget evenly between Army and
Navy--not necessarily the case, eg Alarish puts 90%+ into Navy--so
Navy gets MCr655.

I seem to recall that the US Navy splits its funds about evenly
between Construction, Operations, and Maintenance, so you have about
MCr220 to actually build with, more if you skimp a little on
maintenance and training.

Assume you expect your ships to last 30 years before maintenance costs
make it cheaper to scrap them.	Now you have 30years x MCr220 = MCr
6600 = 660 NPV.  You will probably want a Third World Navy with a
frigate flagship, some corvettes and fast attack boats.  Or rather,
that's what you can pay for, regardless of what you want--a lesson I'm
still trying to teach my wife.

Now, somewhere in here, we need to account for:
a) actual population of Gurkha World, rather than 1999 population of
Nepal.	You'll have to think of some convincing rational for moving a
few million people to an out of the way place, because frankly I
can't.	My rational for Alarish was the free market economy and
Design-Your-Own-Government (TM) would attract settlers, and they used
their position on or near shipping routes to IF and PAU to develop an
economy.  In the case of the IF, my supposition is the government sent
out recruiting parties when they wanted settlers, and gave the
recruiters machine guns to provide a little incentive.

b) a conversion from 1999 dollars to "current" credits.  This is
obviously a major factor, since my SWAG* is that  1 Cr =~ $4, and I
didn't account for it above.

c) other sources of income, such as mercs sending home their
paychecks;  foreign aid from NAC, ESU, or whoever; ships given as
gifts or sold at discount.

d) current Nepalese economy is about 81% agricultural, 16% services,
which leaves a whopping 3% for industry.  Hopefully you'll do a little
better on your new colony, but in the meantime, if you don't want to
invest your capital into shipyards, please note that Weyland
Corporation and Reynolds Shipbuilding both offer quality construction
with quite modest profit margins.

  My initial very rough estimate was 1988 (not 1998) GDP(billions)  x
100 = NPV Fleet size.  That was based on the observation that the NSL
GDP was $1139 billion and their fleet looked like it might be around
120,000 NPV by the time you added all the listed ships together and
assumed there were some classes not mentioned.	If you take that
route, you've got NPV 2620 to play with, which is why I'm estimating
the 4:1 credit to dollar ratio.  On the other hand, you don't have the
home country's resources to draw on, just your colony, so  you are
probably back to your 660NPV fleet.  You may want to offer basing
rights to the NAC.

* SWAG = Scientific Wild Approximate Guess...more or less.