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>> WWII and its aftermath (...) resulted in great economic prosperity -perhaps unprecedented prosperity I don't think that applies to any other country except

>> WWII and its aftermath (...) resulted in great economic prosperity -perhaps unprecedented prosperity I don't think that applies to any other country except the U.S. England, for instance, almost went bankrupt and had to ask for an enormous loan from the U.S [1]. The entirety of the Mashall plan [2], if you only consider the western part of the iron curtain, is definite proof that WWII not only didn't benefit those countries but put those former colonial powers in a position of extreme weakness and external dependency. Basically the only reason for the U.S. rise from an isolationist country to the superpower it became was due to the distance from the actual fighting and the fact that it had the only intact industry, infrastructure and transportation network of the whole western world. Wars are great tools for prosperity redistribution from the losers to the winners, and from the parties not involved to the (Eisenhower coined) military industrial complex, but very lousy tools for actual prosperity creation for the same reason the proverbial "broken window" is a fallacy. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postwar_Britain#Austerity.2C_1945.E2.80.931950 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postwar_Britain#Austerity.2C_1... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Plan

mistermann 11y ago
I happen to believe prosperity can be willed into existence in some cases, and it doesn't require war. If you have significant unemployment, cooking up a plan to put those people to work in >0 productivity endeavors will result in increased prosperity, even if it isn't nearly as efficient (productive) as the free market would produce. The degree of the effectiveness is a function of how inefficient the natural economy is at the time (and monetary & cultural factors, etc), so it's certainly not a simple formula.
bubbleRefuge 11y ago
Unemployment was historically low. The balance sheet of the private sector was restored during and after WWII. All of it resulting from enormous unprecedented Keynesian spending programs. We can do the same thing again but aimed at large scale infrastructure upgrades and I'd even throw in a job/income guarantee.

mistermann 11y ago

I happen to believe prosperity can be willed into existence in some cases, and it doesn't require war. If you have significant unemployment, cooking up a plan to put those people to work in >0 productivity endeavors will result in increased prosperity, even if it isn't nearly as efficient (productive) as the free market would produce. The degree of the effectiveness is a function of how inefficient the natural economy is at the time (and monetary & cultural factors, etc), so it's certainly not a simple formula.

bubbleRefuge 11y ago

Unemployment was historically low. The balance sheet of the private sector was restored during and after WWII. All of it resulting from enormous unprecedented Keynesian spending programs. We can do the same thing again but aimed at large scale infrastructure upgrades and I'd even throw in a job/income guarantee.