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From: radford@calgary.UUCP (Radford Neal)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Adverse effects of the Abolition of
Message-ID: <99@calgary.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1-Feb-86 17:09:32 EST
Article-I.D.: calgary.99
Posted: Sat Feb  1 17:09:32 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 2-Feb-86 17:26:23 EST
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Organization: University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta
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>      [Radford Neal radford@calgary]
> >Some may say that the command economy of the USSR can divert a larger 
> >proportion of the GNP to arms than NATO countries can (without provoking
> >adverse politcal reactions). Maybe, but several times more? I doubt it.
> 
> I believe it *is* several times more. GNP  estimates  don't  make
> much  sense,  in  the  absence of a common market where prices of
> goods would level off. But in *real* terms:  what  percentage  of
> workers work in war plants; percentage of machine tools there, or
> of energy, steel, transistors etc. - "several times" is certainly
> true.

As you point out, this is probably impossible to really figure, due to
the lack of free trade between the USSR and the West to establish valid
GNP figures. But another point working against the USSR is that with
a lower per-capita GNP they *must* devote a larger portion to subsistence
of the population.

      Radford Neal