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The US was the only major industrial nation not to be completely devastated in WWI and WWII. They/we benefitted from this enormously throughout the 20th century
by exstudent2 10y ago
The US was the only major industrial nation not to be completely devastated in WWI and WWII. They/we benefitted from this enormously throughout the 20th century. It was only a matter of time before things normalized.
- carsongross 10y agoAre you sure that that is correct? Do you believe in the Ricardian argument for free trade? If so, why did we not become richer as other countries became better trading partners?
- exstudent2 10y agoI don't think we have free trade (although I would certainly support it!). I think we probably are richer than we were pre-war. We're just not at the peak we were after the war when we had a monopoly on success. We also profited greatly supplying the wars. We haven't had a "market" like that since then. The US was mostly its own customer during the cold war.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 10y agoWhat other major industrial nation was not devastated during either World War? (I guess you can say "Canada" but I'm not sure how "major" or "industrial" they would have been in WWI).
- carsongross 10y agoYou are assuming the conclusion. My question is: the standard Ricardian argument for international free trade assumes that as trading partners become more productive, all trading partners benefit. Do you think this is the case? Certainly the original post does, as confirmed in his response. If that is so, why would other countries becoming better at making things make us poorer?
- Camillo 10y agoIt may have made America as a whole wealthier, but destroyed the working class.