Hacker News Reader

By the time you have an army you're a government yourself, and you're gonna need to levy taxes, draft conscripts, etc.

Simply put, a non-nation-state can't bring the resources to bear to fight against a nation state. They're just gonna get rolled.

View on HN

Actually- are you sure about this? Armys- get strange, like most of them will consist of some drone ships and high tech weapons very soon. That is something, that anyone can build with a little hi-tech manufacturing power. Every third world country by now can buy a chinese tomahawk version. Ever increasing artefact power actually lowers the playing field here.

Does it matter, though? If you have access to something that gives you effective sovereignty, whether it's million-man armies or drone ships, you are a de facto government.

That's only if you want a standing army. Standing armies are the root of civilization, and of all evil, depends on how you look at it (I actually think both are true, since they aren't exclusive).

If you don't have a standing army then you better have treaties with ones that have standing armies. The small kid does not get picked on if he has the right friends.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com