Given the recent anonymous/lulzsec/anti-sec hacking/ddos campaigns, I think it's become pretty obvious that it doesn't take a lot of man-power or resources to cause chaos. If companies and governments can't defend against a small group of teenage hackers they certainly don't have any chance of stopping a government with an army of hackers.
The thing is though, costs of providing bandwidth and general technology is always getting cheaper, faster, better. However, those cost savings are not getting passed onto the customer like they should. Last I heard the cost for an ISP to deliver 1 gig of traffic was around 1 cent.
The E3 keynote for the ps3 in 2006 still holds a special place in my heart:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IH2w2l1JTs4
It's RIDDDDDDDDDDDDDDGEEE RACER! GIANT ENEMY CRAB