Hi frankw1900; Re: "Pakistan's military budget is about 35% of GDP."
The problem with "exaggerations" of this nature is that a lot of people have a strong tendency to believe what they read. Especially if it's really not something they care about. I don't care about what Pakistan's military budget is, but I damn well know that it's nowhere near "35% of GDP". I doubt that it's ever been that high for any nation in modern history. In fact, the more poor a country is, the more difficult it is for them to generate a high percentage of GDP into the military. Probably the highest ratio was recorded in one of the advanced nations fighting in WW2.
Incidentally, this fact, (that modernized nations can put a higher percentage of their cash into weapons), is part of the reason that the advanced nations have such an excellent win / loss record against the (frequently more enthusiastic to fight) 3rd world nations.
Here's a more reasonable number:
Pakistan [Military]
Budget
Faced with the problem of defense against a much larger enemy from a relatively weak resource base, the military must lay claim to a disproportionate share of the nation's resources even to maintain a minimally effective defensive capability. The military was fortunate in that successive governments--with the exception of the early Bhutto years--believed it necessary to support the armed services as much as possible. This attitude also persisted among the public at large, who accepted the danger from India as real and present.
From 1958 until 1973, the published defense budget accounted for between 50 and 60 percent of total government expenditures. After that time, the proportions were much lower, falling to 40 and even 30 percent levels and ranging between 5 and 7 percent of GNP. At the same time, however, because of an expanding economy, actual expenditures--even allowing for inflation--showed considerable increases. The defense budget for fiscal year (FY-- see Glossary) 1993 was set at Rs94 billion (for value of the rupee--see Glossary), or US$3.3 billion, which represented 27 percent of government spending and almost 9 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP--see Glossary). The published budget understated expenditures by excluding procurement and defense-related research and development as well as funds spent on such activities as intelligence and the nuclear program. (Wirsing 94; Rizvi 124,205,244; Janes; SIPRI)
Data as of April 1994
memory.loc.gov@field(DOCID+pk0165)
-- Carl |
