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Your inclusion of the timeline relating to WWI made me wonder how much of that war (and WWII) were about economic disparity. I found this interesting article on

Your inclusion of the timeline relating to WWI made me wonder how much of that war (and WWII) were about economic disparity. I found this interesting article on the topic: https://www.promarket.org/2018/01/03/inequality-imperialism-first-world-war/ https://www.promarket.org/2018/01/03/inequality-imperialism-... It seems reasonable to assume that a similar surplus of investable funds with no where left to spend it will create similar conflict both here and in space (given how many of our ultra elite are pushing into outer space for the next great fortune).

JumpCrisscross 3y ago
> a similar surplus of investable funds with no where left to spend it Neither the beginning of WWI nor today are characterised with a lack of investment opportunities. If anything, economic disparity increases when investment opportunities are aplenty because that typically characterises a period of change.
- deleted 3y ago
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engineer_22 3y ago
The 19th century was a period of intense social change as a result of the mastery of steam and steel. The economies of western European economies changed incredibly fast and national identities began to solidify around the identities of the people living there. The aristocratic tradition prior to the First World War was a result of an already large change from the feudal structure of pre-industrial Europe. It's interesting to try to draw parallels to the present day, but I think it's most important to remember we are participants of history and to behave as such.
- jauntywundrkind 3y ago
  There was enormous opportunity as massive massive industries bad to be discovered bootstrapped and built out. And it was in an age where so many concentrated natural resources were ripe for taking. People seem to think of post-war booms as a thing, but the creation of colossal industries and their sprawling supply chains is something we have already done. Might we repeat the feat, double the scale of industry? Maybe. But expanding would bring nowhere near the prosperity & benefit that going from 0->1 brought us. It would (almost) all be owned by existing powers, versus the unplanned uncoordinated development from nothing of heavy industry we had.
wredcoll 3y ago
> It seems reasonable to assume that a similar surplus of investable funds with no where left to spend it will create similar conflict Germany started ww2 when it did because it (more or less) ran out of money.
tim333 3y ago
I think a lot of war, both that and more recent comes from the power disparity between the king or dictator running things and the ordinary people, rather than about economic disparity. Then you get situations like that in Russia/Ukraine where Putin may as well use a million Russians as cannon fodder to grab land and become Vlad the great because what are they going to do about it? WW1 was similar. Serious wars between proper democracies where the cannon fodder get to make the decisions pretty much don't happen. On the other hand if you look at neighbouring countries with unusually high Gini inequality coefficients like SA and Namibia, or the US and Mexico there is little sign of war breaking out.

JumpCrisscross 3y ago

> a similar surplus of investable funds with no where left to spend it Neither the beginning of WWI nor today are characterised with a lack of investment opportunities. If anything, economic disparity increases when investment opportunities are aplenty because that typically characterises a period of change.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

engineer_22 3y ago

The 19th century was a period of intense social change as a result of the mastery of steam and steel. The economies of western European economies changed incredibly fast and national identities began to solidify around the identities of the people living there. The aristocratic tradition prior to the First World War was a result of an already large change from the feudal structure of pre-industrial Europe. It's interesting to try to draw parallels to the present day, but I think it's most important to remember we are participants of history and to behave as such.

jauntywundrkind 3y ago
There was enormous opportunity as massive massive industries bad to be discovered bootstrapped and built out. And it was in an age where so many concentrated natural resources were ripe for taking. People seem to think of post-war booms as a thing, but the creation of colossal industries and their sprawling supply chains is something we have already done. Might we repeat the feat, double the scale of industry? Maybe. But expanding would bring nowhere near the prosperity & benefit that going from 0->1 brought us. It would (almost) all be owned by existing powers, versus the unplanned uncoordinated development from nothing of heavy industry we had.

wredcoll 3y ago

> It seems reasonable to assume that a similar surplus of investable funds with no where left to spend it will create similar conflict Germany started ww2 when it did because it (more or less) ran out of money.

tim333 3y ago

I think a lot of war, both that and more recent comes from the power disparity between the king or dictator running things and the ordinary people, rather than about economic disparity. Then you get situations like that in Russia/Ukraine where Putin may as well use a million Russians as cannon fodder to grab land and become Vlad the great because what are they going to do about it? WW1 was similar. Serious wars between proper democracies where the cannon fodder get to make the decisions pretty much don't happen. On the other hand if you look at neighbouring countries with unusually high Gini inequality coefficients like SA and Namibia, or the US and Mexico there is little sign of war breaking out.