4 ms·

It's a market like everything else. If you have the best weapons and it is a sellers market, you can buy everything in 'exchange' with your weapons. However, i

It's a market like everything else. If you have the best weapons and it is a sellers market, you can buy everything in 'exchange' with your weapons. However, if others see the 'opportunity' and also participate in that market, profits decline until your income can barely cover production costs. Have a look at the quality of life of the Soviet Union. They spent everything on weapons with a very limited return on investment. On the other hand, Guns Germs and Steel argues that the military competition within Europe has led to western dominance. From that perspective, investing in weapons leads to huge profits even if short term returns are very low.

WalterBright 6y ago
I'm not a big fan of GG&S, as his thesis is the West was just lucky. The "Triumph of the West" by Roberts has a more compelling thesis - that Western culture is more favorable towards new ideas and new ways of doing things. We see this as country after country discards the old ways and adopts western culture.
- licebmi__at__ 6y ago
  >We see this as country after country discards the old ways and adopts western culture. I don't understand the rationality, wouldn't your thesis mean that other countries which are supposedly more closed won't abandon their ways? With what I know about history, western culture doesn't seem more prone than others to incorporate other cultures. We can find evidently countless examples of western culture adapting to new ideas and foreign cultures, but only seems special if we ignore the rest of the cultures doing the same.
  - WalterBright 6y ago
    Western culture does indeed adopt what it likes from other cultures. But the nature of western culture changes little. I've traveled in foreign countries, and over my life I've noticed they become more and more like the west, not the other way around. Sometimes you'll see countries violently reject western culture and return to their old ways, but it's a losing game for them.

WalterBright 6y ago

I'm not a big fan of GG&S, as his thesis is the West was just lucky. The "Triumph of the West" by Roberts has a more compelling thesis - that Western culture is more favorable towards new ideas and new ways of doing things. We see this as country after country discards the old ways and adopts western culture.

licebmi__at__ 6y ago
>We see this as country after country discards the old ways and adopts western culture. I don't understand the rationality, wouldn't your thesis mean that other countries which are supposedly more closed won't abandon their ways? With what I know about history, western culture doesn't seem more prone than others to incorporate other cultures. We can find evidently countless examples of western culture adapting to new ideas and foreign cultures, but only seems special if we ignore the rest of the cultures doing the same.
- WalterBright 6y ago
  Western culture does indeed adopt what it likes from other cultures. But the nature of western culture changes little. I've traveled in foreign countries, and over my life I've noticed they become more and more like the west, not the other way around. Sometimes you'll see countries violently reject western culture and return to their old ways, but it's a losing game for them.