system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[The Force Awakens][Spoilers] Financial question about the First Order

TFA was good. Obviously a very strong homage to the original trilogy, a huge planet-destroying superweapon included. 

My only issue with the Starkiller is how expensive and time consuming would it be to build it. The Empire ruled the galaxy, taxing hundreds of system to fund their military expenses. How a fringe political group managed to hollow out a planet and install a superweapon in it in a span of less than 30 years, while keeping things completely under wraps? That would be ridiculously expensive and that's when my suspension of disbelief failed me.

Imagine Confederates losing a Civil War, their sympathizers moving to Canada and building a nuclear arsenal aimed at the whole East Coast. That's how it feels to me.
gpt
The power and authority of the First Order is never really detailed in the movie. It's sufficiently powerful that the New Republic would rather back a insurrectionist force against it than engage in outright warfare, which would imply that it controls a significant amount of the Galaxy. They also have the ability to commender children to train as Storm Troopers, and seem to have access to the ability to clone their own army if they so choose. 

I wouldn't call them a fringe political group. More like the Third Reich in space.