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Seven Proxies
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Comments by "Seven Proxies" (@sevenproxies4255) on "Tank Production Cost a meaningful Factor for Comparison?" video.
I wonder, is it possible to find information about the amounts of raw materials necessary to produce a specific tank as well as the amount of raw materials that the country in question can/could produce for it's manufacture? I think you're onto something about criticising the use of "cost" in terms of money, due to the fact that the value of pure currency is unreliable during wartime. So taking a hard look at raw material input in production and raw material output of the country is infinitely more relevant than a pricetag. Basically, you need to look at the economy as if it was a game of Age of Empires rather than a game of money. :)
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@galaxy_canon6039 I didn't mean that money is never a reliable indicator. But it most certainly can be very unreliable when desperate governments start printing money like crazy to fund war efforts and basically circumventing regular markets when they acquire their raw materials to manufacture weapons and vehicles (like with slave labour or appropriating captured resources from enemies etc.) Unless each and every part involved in a particular machine has been bought with currency through an open market, it's very hard to accurately describe it's actual cost. Then there's the wealth difference between countries to consider, and the amount of tanks or planes that they need to field for the task at hand. For instance, South Korea is usually credited as having the worlds most expensive tanks in service today (due to having the highest pricetag). But whether something is expensive or not is relative to whichever budget makes the purchase, what roles the tank is expected to fulfill and how many you intend to field etc. So in the context of South Korea, maybe their tank isn't as expensive as if it would've been if they tried to manufacture it in the U.S or China.
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