Re: Thinking out loud. . .

Apart from the population figures, there are a number of assumptions
that go into figuring out the strength of the armed forces:

- What is the economic productivity of the nation and its industrial
strength ?
This affects equipment more than raw numbers, but a high-productivity
economy has more reserves to cut to put people into the forces.

- How much of the economy is on a war footing ? Is it at an all-out war
level (e.g.as in WWII ), at an intermediate level (e.g.the Cold War),
or are military expenditures a sideshow (a peace dividend period). The
GZG-verse seems, to me, to be at an intermediate level.

- How much of the logistic tail and other support organizations
(e.g.intelligence) is part of the official military ? Is everybody,
right back to the miners who dig iron ore for the armour under military
control? Or is even, say, the maintenance of front-line aircraft done
by civilian contractors ? 

Greetings
Karl Heinz