There's a lot of hype about the SAS (and the SASR here in Australia) these days, but most of it is what is spoon fed to media organisations. The media are really only interested in the flashy parts of the Special forces, ie: the men dressed in black, carrying sub-machine guns and busting in doors etc. The "real" work they do, never gets reported and even Andy McNAB and Chris RYAN's "controversial" books only ever gave a broad outline of past SAS operations. They would never be allowed to describe the operations in intimate detail, with exact specifics, such as SAS patrol routines, exact tactical area of operations, timings, codes, communication equipment details, exact weapons and other equipment capabilities etc. About the most you read is that they carry "satellite phones" and TACBE's and carry M16/M203's etc. This tells you nothing of the equipment's or the troops actual capabilities though and is simply the sorts of information that can be obtained by doing a Google search or whatever. Again the training things about "selection" are generally fairly well known, such as the "fan dance" etc that is conducted in the Black Mountains in Wales during the initial 4 week SAS Selection course. What is not well known is what happens after this. There's no real problem with people knowing about the initial selection course because all it does is select people who are mentally very tough, physically very fit and appear to have the right sort of attitude and perhaps aptitude to "fit in". The real training starts after this and for obvious reason is a closely guarded secret. Cheers.
. I also understand that a direct relationship between entry/standards and a nations economy is very slim. However, i believe, it may give some form of indication on how much importance a gvt places on its military.