this post was submitted on 13 Sep 2024
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They're missing what makes these hard to replace. It's not the sticker price -- "just" 1 billion could buy you 1000. It's that the U.S. currently lacks the production capacity to quickly manufacture replacements.
Unintentionally a great demonstration of the "industrial capital vs. finance capital" conflict in this war.
Exactly, the one thing the war showed is that the GDP metrics the west has been using to measure the size of an economy are completely worthless. Turns out that Russia alone has the industrial capacity to outproduce all of the west combined.
I wouldn't say that the GDP metrics are useless, though I don't think you mean that literally. But in this context, they aren't the point.
I find GDP by itself doesn't really tell you much. Stuff like PQLI is far more meaningful.
You're right, though 10mil is a lot when that financial capital that the Ukrainian military relies on is pretty sparse. Represents a nice ROI for Western powers who are definitely invested in providing maximal value for the Ukrainian military.