I'm absolutely sure it's self defeating only temporarily and/or when it doesn't matter. Governments can use literally any amount of money and other resources if they care, and there are many people who wouldn't even require extraordinary sums (being in army is not exactly well paid).

We're going full speed into totality. It was absolutely the same when the communist regime started in my home country: People were saying they would not use their new powers against ordinary people and that seizing all farmland would be impractical and then after few years of silence KGB and gulags and executions happened (our local alternatives of course).