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GDP rose during the war, but it felt like a depression. What good is an increase in GDP if basic foodstuffs need to be rationed and people are getting killed? T
by skylan_q 15y ago
GDP rose during the war, but it felt like a depression. What good is an increase in GDP if basic foodstuffs need to be rationed and people are getting killed? The recovery actually came in the post-war boom when government spending was slashed and 5 million people left military operations and joined the civilian workforce.
- cwp 15y agoRight. So ideally, we want a big public spending program without a war.
- brc 15y agoNo, you want lots of people to enter the workforce and be productive. The growth happened after the government spending (ie, military) was wound down. It was the retiring servicemen and women wanting to get on with the rest of their lives that caused the productivity boom.
- cwp 15y agoReally? You think that the government spending lots of money on the war is not what got us out of the Depression? Of course the boom happened after the war was over. During the war... there was a war on. All that effort was getting dropped on Europe instead of raising the standard of living in the US. People may not have had a lot material luxuries during the war, but they sure weren't unemployed.