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> So, I'm left wondering why Americans want to subsidize Europe in this regard? Because Europe's wars cost us dearly in the 20th century.

• dTal 10y ago
  Hardly. By any reasonable metric of post-war success, America, Germany, and Japan were the three winners of WW2. America profited massively, enjoying an enormous economic boost from the war effort, the bill for which they handed to Britain (and which was finally fully paid off in... wait for it... 2006!) and subsidizing the development of the latter two countries through the Marshall plan. Economically, it's blatantly obvious. But it's not a perspective that's in anyone's interest to push. I have no doubt that if the eagle-boner's wildest wet dreams came true and the US had to intervene on Europe's behalf, there'd be a big fat bill at the end.
  • ArkyBeagle 10y ago
    America profited barely at all ( by law, war profiteering was like a ... firing squad offense, okay not quite but... ) - we'd run more debt than anyone thought possible at the time, consumer demand had been suppressed since 1929 and the thing just exploded. Eventually. After 1949-1950. The critical thing is all that debt and industrial capacity, presented with the prostrate markets of the world.