Janne M. Korhonen
Costs of Finland's statutory readiness and preparedness duties & capabilities that are NOT paid from the Ministry of Defence budget are estimated to reach 2.4% of GDP in 2026. Direct #defence expenditure is ~2.5%. And that undercounts the real costs, due to #conscription. defmin.fi/-/puolustusm...

Puolustusministeri Häkkänen: S...
May 20 at 9:24amWeb
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMay 20
#Conscription is essentially a special defence #tax paid in time of the conscripts and reservists. Finnish government decided not to count its hidden costs in the official defence budget, partly because they cannot be unequivocally determined. But estimates range from 1 to 4% of GDP.
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMay 20
ÌMHO for the foreseeable future, conscription is the least bad of not great defence options we Finns have. (It must, and I believe will, become gender neutral eventually, if only due to shrinking youth population. Maybe in the 2030s?) BUT we should be aware of what our "people's army" really costs.
Show threadJanne M. KorhonenMay 20
There probably are some hidden benefits too, but they are even more difficult to calculate. Nevertheless, having some 70% of young men spend 5.5-11.5 months + refresher exercises training for war inevitably causes a loss of potential output and earnings.