Two weeks in, the Webb Space Telescope is reshaping astronomy

Re:Two weeks in, the Webb Space Telescope is reshaping astro... by minhazm on Monday July 25, 2022 @12:57PM (#32227241)

I wonder if this is actually true in practice. I think many of these countries, especially China & India are incentivized to understate how much they actually spend on their defense. Another factor is the cost of labor and goods is so different that even though the US is spending far more actual dollars, the actual output might not be as big of a difference as these articles might have you believe.

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Re:Two weeks in, the Webb Space Telescope is reshaping astro... by akiselev on Monday July 25, 2022 @01:36PM (#32227972)

Historically, countries almost never understate the strength of their armed forces because that would invite pointless conflicts with weaker adversaries. Unless the former is looking for some casus belli to invade the latter, it leads to the most pointless loss of life where the latter never stood a chance anyway but the former has to waste resources on the defense.

I don't know how that calculus changes in the context of modern superpowers or China's ambitions for Taiwan but that's the reasoning historically.

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Re:Two weeks in, the Webb Space Telescope is reshaping astro... by signatoremo on Monday July 25, 2022 @03:12PM (#32229482)

How can you possibly know how much a country spent on military to conclude they almost never understate their funding?

A perfect reason a country may understate their military spending is to hide their capabilities. For that matter, they may overstate their spending as well.

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Re:Two weeks in, the Webb Space Telescope is reshaping astro... by HeyLaughingBoy on Monday July 25, 2022 @04:45PM (#32230671)

You have to ask yourself why a country would want to hide (as in demote) their capabilities.

Overstating their capabilities is perfectly understandable.

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