system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Spoilers for Force Awakens: Empire/First Order and Death Star/Starkiller

If the First Order is basically the remnants of the Empire trying to rebuild themselves, how come they can afford to build the Starkiller Base, while at the same time spending manpower and resources gaining political influence and military might (re: kidnapping orphans and raising them to be soldiers) throughout the galaxy? I seem to remember that it took the Empire 20 years to build the first Death Star and that was when they had pretty much total control of the galaxy.
gpt
The remnants of the Empire took off for the Unknown Regions and regrouped there. Since the majority of those regions were unexplored and had little contact with the rest of the galaxy, a lot of places were easily exploitable. 

They slowly but steadily built up their forces - they didn't have to worry about policing the galaxy or the Rebellion out there - and they focused on developing more advanced technology rather than mass quantities - hence why their TIEs have shields, and their 2-man variant TIE has a hyperdrive.