> The revenue available to the the city of Chicago can’t be compared to the country of New Zealand.
Sure it can.
> The national budget of NZ is seven times that of Chicago’s because the state and federal taxes payed by the residents of Chicago are not included in their city budget.
And yet the Federal Government and the State Government spend budget in Chicago, investing in Federal and State infrastructure projects. Over and above what the City spends. Roll those expenditures in and the comparison is perfectly valid.
> It is not because Chicagoians pay only one-seventh the taxes you do. Get it?
We pay all the infrastructural costs similar to what Chicago pays as a city, AND we pay all the infrastructural costs similar to what Chicago receives as a part of the State of Illinois, AND we pay all of the infrastructural costs similar to what Chicago receives as a part of the United States.
We therefore can afford as much “Armed Forces” as Chicago can afford. No more, no less. Get it?
> This is not the stuff of world or European domination.
Tell that to Georgia.
> Who defended the Homeland?
The New Zealand Home Guard did. Battle-hardened veterans of the Great War.
Drive around Auckland along Tamaki Drive and you can still see gun emplacements. Under the streets of Auckland there are still perfectly good air raid tunnels. Devonport still has a huge ammo and arms dump. They didn’t appear by magic, and they aren’t natural formations: they were built by New Zealanders to repel and defend against foreign invaders.
To hear you Yanks talk you’d think the Japs were the first threat New Zealand ever faced from foreign forces, and that New Zealand sat there helplessly waiting for Americans to save them. Not so.
Prior to WW-II the Russians and the French had both presented threats, in their time. And, like the Japs, they wisely stayed away with both feet.
> Or were the Nazis roaming around NZ keeping you busy? LOL.
What a jerk. We’re definitely finished now.
LOL. Only "perfectly valid" if you have an IQ of a moron.
Prior to WW-II the Russians and the French had both presented threats, in their time. And, like the Japs, they wisely stayed away with both feet.
LOL. NZ=The mouse that roared. The Japanese stayed away because the US and the UK provided your security. Your 9,000 man armed forces wouldn't equal a speed bump to any serious enemy. Your socialist paradise is fortunate that it is located so out of the way, that very few would care to make the effort to take it over.