While this is great, I’m still firmly in the camp that we are spending an embarrassingly low amount on both our own military, Ukraine, and up-arming ourselves and allies in general.
Norway has made an absurd amount of money on the increase in gas prices due to the war, and the rule regarding the wealth fund was put in place to ensure the benefit of future generations. I’m still young enough (< 30) that the latter to some extent applies to me. There is no better investment for future generations than ensuring that we, Ukraine, and our allies, are armed to the teeth asafp.
To be absolutely clear: A quick search tells me that the EU and member states have donated a total of 145 billion USD to Ukraine. Norway has the resources to on its own match that - dollar for dollar - and it would cost ≈ 7 % of our “wealth fund”. This makes the notion of giving donations measured in the single-digit billions absolutely embarrassing.
Norway has the ability to stand up now and show that we’re good for something. We can pick up the slack from the paused US support (in terms of dollars) tomorrow if our politicians choose to do so. If no one leads the way we are doomed to fail. I believe that Norway has the opportunity to show we mean business, and that failure to do so will go down in history as a massive mistake. My vote this autumn is going to whatever party that best understands this.
It’s worth noting that unlike Civilization games, you can’t just magically turn saved money into military power. Like, there is a limited supply of equipment until production ramps up. But of course you are right that bigger investments are super necessary.
Of course, that’s why I specified (in terms of dollars). I guess my line of thinking is that if Norway declared tomorrow that they had dumped 150 billion EUR into buying weapons, and would buy from whoever could deliver the fastest, we would probably see an increase in weapons manufacturing on European soil the likes of which we haven’t seen since WWII. That’s what we need right now.
The second element (which I honestly think is at least as important) is showing the rest of Europe how it’s done. By pushing ahead and doing something symbolic like immediately picking up the slack from the US (in dollars) we can hopefully shake other countries into recognising how high of a priority this should be. It may also help people shake off the “what are we going to do” feeling, by showing what we’re going to do: Prioritise this above all else.
Civilisation forces you to make choices when building military units as well. You either invest some initial production in a factory or other production multipliers, or you queue up the units immediately but they’ll take longer to build.
While this is great, I’m still firmly in the camp that we are spending an embarrassingly low amount on both our own military, Ukraine, and up-arming ourselves and allies in general.
Norway has made an absurd amount of money on the increase in gas prices due to the war, and the rule regarding the wealth fund was put in place to ensure the benefit of future generations. I’m still young enough (< 30) that the latter to some extent applies to me. There is no better investment for future generations than ensuring that we, Ukraine, and our allies, are armed to the teeth asafp.
To be absolutely clear: A quick search tells me that the EU and member states have donated a total of 145 billion USD to Ukraine. Norway has the resources to on its own match that - dollar for dollar - and it would cost ≈ 7 % of our “wealth fund”. This makes the notion of giving donations measured in the single-digit billions absolutely embarrassing.
Norway has the ability to stand up now and show that we’re good for something. We can pick up the slack from the paused US support (in terms of dollars) tomorrow if our politicians choose to do so. If no one leads the way we are doomed to fail. I believe that Norway has the opportunity to show we mean business, and that failure to do so will go down in history as a massive mistake. My vote this autumn is going to whatever party that best understands this.
It’s worth noting that unlike Civilization games, you can’t just magically turn saved money into military power. Like, there is a limited supply of equipment until production ramps up. But of course you are right that bigger investments are super necessary.
Of course, that’s why I specified (in terms of dollars). I guess my line of thinking is that if Norway declared tomorrow that they had dumped 150 billion EUR into buying weapons, and would buy from whoever could deliver the fastest, we would probably see an increase in weapons manufacturing on European soil the likes of which we haven’t seen since WWII. That’s what we need right now.
The second element (which I honestly think is at least as important) is showing the rest of Europe how it’s done. By pushing ahead and doing something symbolic like immediately picking up the slack from the US (in dollars) we can hopefully shake other countries into recognising how high of a priority this should be. It may also help people shake off the “what are we going to do” feeling, by showing what we’re going to do: Prioritise this above all else.
Civilisation forces you to make choices when building military units as well. You either invest some initial production in a factory or other production multipliers, or you queue up the units immediately but they’ll take longer to build.