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Probably a little less than back then, the incentives are not so strong. During the Cold War it was like in Harry Potter: "one cannot live while the other survi
by praptak 15y ago
Probably a little less than back then, the incentives are not so strong. During the Cold War it was like in Harry Potter: "one cannot live while the other survives", now the struggle for power in the world is less intense, it's more about influence and profit rather than destroying the other side.
- its_so_on 15y agowell, China manufactures all America's stuff. I will leave it to you how the Soviet-era threat of Nuclear bombs compares, to an American, with the threat of not getting any more stuff.
- jmesserly 15y agoThis is a common misconception. The US is the world's largest manufacturer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States#Manufacturing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States#Ma... Now, it's true that as a percent of GDP, China is the largest manufacturer. But per capita it is either Japan or Germany (depending on which charts I was looking at), with US not far behind. (Unfortunately as the world's largest national economy, a beggar-thy-neighbor export policy doesn't work so well for us.)
- mturmon 15y agoSounds good at first, but remember, the U.S. just spent around around $3e12 on wars in the Middle East, developing all kinds of technology along the way. Some of it has to be surveillance tech like this. Even a small fraction of this number would pay for a lot.
- brown9-2 15y agoI wouldn't be so sure, especially since 9/11/2001: http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articles/national-security-inc/ http://projects.washingtonpost.com/top-secret-america/articl...