1. U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts will hold their next scheduled summit in Lithuania, Vilnius, on July 11-12, 2023.
https://archive.md/qqbvr2. NATO’s secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said he wanted
NATO members to agree that spending 2% of GDP on defence as a minimum at the alliance’s next summit.
https://archive.md/IZLP3PDF & pic related are my calculations concerning the strain this new policy will have on all member countries and aspirants using the latest World Bank data on $GDP, and %GDP spending on military, education, and healthcare.
The total increase in military budget by my estimation
will be $50.39 billion worldwide. This increase in state spending will bring the worst outcomes for Iceland, Luxemburg, Bulgaria, Albania, and North Macedonia, while being significantly detrimental to Italy, Hungary, and Georgia (if accepted as member), and bring some strain to the economies of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Spain, Slovakia.
Which means that 13-14 countries are about to get worse economically, which roughly means 277 million people living worse off due to the needs of NATO's leading superpower, the USA.
3. What to do?
If you are one of these 277 million people, recognize what this increase in military spending will inevitably mean for you and your countrymen: austerity and a decrease in essential state spending (infrastructure, healthcare, education, etc.). Even if you are not a member of any political organization, please send this information to your preferred political groups. All I'm asking is a single e-mail.
If you are a member of other NATO countries not really affected by this proposed change, you must oppose continent-wide austerity any way, but surely you must be against NATO either way. You can organize protests, send e-mails too.
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