The Nazis had about 4 million people in uniform at the start of the war, America has about 1.5 million today, but it’s not a bad comparison considering the last time American debt exceeded the GDP was the end of WW2.
Though to be fair, the U.S. has a lot more of an economy and population to work with and isn’t investing nearly as much, far more was spent on the military by Germany as a percentage of their GDP, and their military had more people per capita than the U.S. does today.
If anyone’s interested in further reading the MEFO Bills are definitely interesting from an economic perspective.
I’m sure it wasn’t the first army built on credit, but it was definitely the biggest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States?wprov=sfla1
The Nazis had about 4 million people in uniform at the start of the war, America has about 1.5 million today, but it’s not a bad comparison considering the last time American debt exceeded the GDP was the end of WW2.
Yeah, by manpower Germany’s was definitely larger, by budget though, our annual military spending blows theirs out of the water.
At the height of the war, Germany spent about 380 billion dollars adjusted for inflation to the year 2021
In 2021, the U.S. spent about 700 billion dollars on it’s military.
Though to be fair, the U.S. has a lot more of an economy and population to work with and isn’t investing nearly as much, far more was spent on the military by Germany as a percentage of their GDP, and their military had more people per capita than the U.S. does today.