That's funny but $200B seemed way too small. Then I found this: https://www.pgpf.org/chart-archive/0053_defense-comparison

"The United States spends more on national defense than China, India, Russia, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, and South Korea — combined."

!?

And $200B is inside the consensus estimate of $200B to $300B. Wow.

Not to forget, Apple also controls the app store and billions of devoted fans with iPhone with push notifications /g. Seriously I am wondering when will we see a corporation go to war in a kind of futuristic Opium War sort of battle.

I'm not a fan of comparisons like that because they don't account for cost or standard of living between counties, just raw exchange rates. It would be especially pronounced when including countries like India and Russia.

You're right, but when the numbers are so lopsided on the US' favour, there's no way in hell that cost of living can account for such a stark difference.

I mean, the US has 20 aircraft carriers and the rest of the world has 28. The proof is in the pudding.

The proof is actually in the eating, not the pudding.