Canada

5% on defense spending is a lot. Really a lot. By the time it reaches 5% in 2035, that's going to be at least $3.5 trillion per year spent by NATO.

That's insane.

Also, how much of the infrastructure that gets built is going to be publicly owned and see revenues from their use flow back into public coffers? Are we going to drop tens of billions into infrastructure for rare earth mining only to see the mining companies reap all the benefits?

I am very, very skeptical of all this.

Tbh, my cynical read of this is that it looks a lot more like the West preparing for war under US guidance. BRICS+ has surpassed the G7 in GDP, the center of world economy is now moving to Asia, and China is about to leave the US in its dust economically. That will all happen without any need for war, just based on continued economic development under peaceful conditions. War would be the main thing that could disrupt that and military power is a main advantage the US still has over the competition. The US is already waging economic war on China, and Hegseth has been open about wanting Europe to spend more on their own defense so the US can square off against China. To me, it looks like the Western-led order with the old Western colonial powers dumping a tonne of money into military power so they can disrupt the transition of power to the emerging powers from the Global South and make a last ditch effort to hold on to the world order that's kept them on top for the last few hundred years.

For comparison, the US who spends more than the next what, ten? states combined on their military is at 3.4% of gdp. We're not spending 5% of our gdp on the military without huge cuts. Is it worth your healthcare? Because that shit is done in this scenario.

On domestic production right? 🤔

Shout out to spain, thr only one who don't folliw what trump want

So 5% seems like a lot... but we have definitely been under spending for awhile and could use some catch up, and 1.5% of that is earmarked for infrastructure, so maybe we'll at least get something useful to everyone and not just the military out of that extra 1.5%. Like a port doesn't necessarily have to be a military port, but the infrastructure could be used by the military if needed. Unless they really mean that has to be a military port, in which case, meh.

Long term though that seems a bit bonkers.

Edit: also were going to need to spend a lot of money on arctic stuff as global warming proceeds, at least in the mid-term. I bet a lot of it will go into that.

Edit: just another example, a high-speed rail connecting Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City could be part of that. It would allow the military to deploy around the region much faster. Spend some money on some special high speed military train cars as well to help make the point.

Gearing up for war, here we go. Well, I'm too old to get drafted. Good luck, kids.

That's just an insane number.

A nation is only as strong as its people. A progressive government would define "defense" spending as anything protecting the health and prosperity of their people. So 5% of GDP for taking care of the population should not be that bad. If NATO disagrees they can go die mad.