[patrick451]

So much specious reasoning here. Is there even a correlation between economic output and national security across large numbers of countries? If there is, how do we know the relationship is causal? How do you quantify better or worse national security?

[lusus_naturae]

This is a well-studied field, but you're right to question the underlying assumptions. This paper models human capital, future investment and national security [1], this paper [2] talks about the complementarity of consumption and national defense. This book starts out with the same assumptions I am making, but I can't speak to its overall conclusions bc I haven't read it [3]. More accessible article https://www.industryweek.com/finance/software-systems/articl...

[1] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10242694.2018.14...

[2] https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10242694.2014.89...

[3] https://www.jstor.org/stable/26268663?seq=1