On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:59:23PM -0800, Jim Vassilakos wrote:
> For example, if a noble gets to keep 1% of the money he taxes as
> personal wealth, that's potentially a lot of personal wealth.

I think it's reasonable that the ranking Imperial noble of a decently
populated world should be fabulously wealthy by ordinary standards. It
fits my view of the Imperium pretty well, at least. They may also have
wealth from other sources, and most likely do.

> However, if the Navy is expected to operate on such a low percentage
> of GDP, I'm not sure it's going to be able to repel a significant
> threat, should one arise. Just some initial thoughts.

I think that fits with the "small ship" view of the setting. There are
no significant threats, for some reason or other.  In such a setting,
a trillion credit squadron is still a force to be reckoned with on the
large scale.  Star systems simply don't, or can't, go over to a war
footing in which every high-pop world with sufficient technology can
produce such a force every few months.

- Tim