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The US won world war 2 because the British gave us a shit ton of IP, which we then built in our factories, which weren't being bombed to shit like the rest of E

The US won world war 2 because the British gave us a shit ton of IP, which we then built in our factories, which weren't being bombed to shit like the rest of Europe, because of two gigantic oceans separating us from war. To repeat the poster above you, correlation doesn't equal causation.

rm999 10y ago
You're right that the fact that US factories weren't being bombed was critical, but it's important not to underestimate the scale here. The USA was a world powerhouse before wwii, with a higher gdp than all axis countries combined. Switching to a high-throughput wartime manufacturing powerhouse was straightforward.
- wheelerwj 10y ago
  I understand we produced a TON of stuff, and I don't mean to belittle it, but to credit the success of the war on our ability to manufacture is an oversimplification of the actual events. Of course we had more stable manufacturing post world war 1, where we took only 10% of the losses of the other developed nations, and 2% of the worlds population was wiped out. It's not surprising that a country who lost only 0.13% of its people was able to move faster and build more stuff than a country who lost 13% of its total population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties
merpnderp 10y ago
Historians hotly debate the effectiveness of allied bombing on German factories. "Bombed to shit" is an improbable description of German manufacturing during the war.
jgalt212 10y ago
> the British gave us a shit ton of IP While I don't necessarily agree with the statement, it is interesting to see how many things the Brits invented post 1900, but did not have the wherewithal to fully commercially exploit. For more on this, I recommend visiting the science museum next time anyone here is in London. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/
ascotan 10y ago
I'm sorry what were the inventions that the Brits gave the US that won the war? I think I might have missed something in my history class.
- flukus 10y ago
  Computers, jet planes, nuclear weapons. All in varying stages of completion.
  - wheelerwj 10y ago
    Also radar.
imbeau 10y ago
First of all, the US didn't win the Second World War -- a coalition of the US, Britain, France, China, and, especially, Russia did. Secondly, the US's biggest contribution to the war was manufacturing capacity. Period. Sure, some of the things built in America were designed elsewhere, but the US could outproduce everyone by an order of magnitude thanks to abundant natural resources, a large population, and a heavily industrialized manufacturing base. Not being bombed isn't really a factor in that equation. Also, America produced its share of extraordinary weapons during (and before) the war -- the Thompson submachine gun, the Jeep, the 50 cal machine gun. American submarines were first rate along with aircraft like the P-51. American trucks were the backbone of both the Western and Eastern Allied supply lines. It's pretty disengenuous to summarize Americas contribution to the war as you have above

rm999 10y ago

You're right that the fact that US factories weren't being bombed was critical, but it's important not to underestimate the scale here. The USA was a world powerhouse before wwii, with a higher gdp than all axis countries combined. Switching to a high-throughput wartime manufacturing powerhouse was straightforward.

wheelerwj 10y ago
I understand we produced a TON of stuff, and I don't mean to belittle it, but to credit the success of the war on our ability to manufacture is an oversimplification of the actual events. Of course we had more stable manufacturing post world war 1, where we took only 10% of the losses of the other developed nations, and 2% of the worlds population was wiped out. It's not surprising that a country who lost only 0.13% of its people was able to move faster and build more stuff than a country who lost 13% of its total population. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I_casualties

merpnderp 10y ago

Historians hotly debate the effectiveness of allied bombing on German factories. "Bombed to shit" is an improbable description of German manufacturing during the war.

jgalt212 10y ago

> the British gave us a shit ton of IP While I don't necessarily agree with the statement, it is interesting to see how many things the Brits invented post 1900, but did not have the wherewithal to fully commercially exploit. For more on this, I recommend visiting the science museum next time anyone here is in London. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/

ascotan 10y ago

I'm sorry what were the inventions that the Brits gave the US that won the war? I think I might have missed something in my history class.

flukus 10y ago
Computers, jet planes, nuclear weapons. All in varying stages of completion.
- wheelerwj 10y ago
  Also radar.

imbeau 10y ago

First of all, the US didn't win the Second World War -- a coalition of the US, Britain, France, China, and, especially, Russia did. Secondly, the US's biggest contribution to the war was manufacturing capacity. Period. Sure, some of the things built in America were designed elsewhere, but the US could outproduce everyone by an order of magnitude thanks to abundant natural resources, a large population, and a heavily industrialized manufacturing base. Not being bombed isn't really a factor in that equation. Also, America produced its share of extraordinary weapons during (and before) the war -- the Thompson submachine gun, the Jeep, the 50 cal machine gun. American submarines were first rate along with aircraft like the P-51. American trucks were the backbone of both the Western and Eastern Allied supply lines. It's pretty disengenuous to summarize Americas contribution to the war as you have above