5% of GDP is crazy
Remember it's not 5% of the taxes collected, it's 5% of all Goods and Services produced in the entire economy.
In Germany that would be more than half of the federal state budget
News and information from Europe 🇪🇺
(Current banner: La Mancha, Spain. Feel free to post submissions for banner images.)
(This list may get expanded when necessary.)
We will use some leeway to decide whether to remove a comment.
If need be, there are also bans: 3 days for lighter offenses, 14 days for bigger offenses, and permanent bans for people who don't show any willingness to participate productively. If we think the ban reason is obvious, we may not specifically write to you.
If you want to protest a removal or ban, feel free to write privately to the mods: @[email protected], @[email protected], or @[email protected].
5% of GDP is crazy
Remember it's not 5% of the taxes collected, it's 5% of all Goods and Services produced in the entire economy.
In Germany that would be more than half of the federal state budget
I don't think this is so much as them intending to meet Trump's goal for the sake of reaching that goal. I think it's more that they were former Soviet countries next to a Russia that's very interested in regaining their former empire; they're small and vulnerable and they know that Trump will do whatever Putin tells him to do, so there's no protection from the US; and the EU hasn't really taken advantage of the time since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine to increase their overall defenses. That last point means that supplies are going to be difficult to come by to resist a long, determined effort by Putin to annex their countries.
The 5% military spending is a reflection of that reality, a prod to other EU and NATO countries to increase their spending, and a notice to Putin that they intend to resist.