the fact that a war is fantastic for the economy is common knowledge, or at least I thought What?! This is absurd! Common sense should tell you that war is ter

the fact that a war is fantastic for the economy is common knowledge, or at least I thought What?! This is absurd! Common sense should tell you that war is terrible for an economy because lots of valuable assets get destroyed repeatedly. What you mean is that war is good for GDP because suddenly every last scrap of spare resource is thrown into industrial production, often funded by running up massive debts. But don't make the mistake of confusing the economy for GDP. From a wealth perspective war is about as useful as paying people to dig holes in the ground and immediately fill them back up again. Yes, it pumps your stats around "production" (of holes), but it doesn't create wealth.