Economic Crisis and WWIII

Economic Crisis and WWIII

I have often read statements that indicate that the Great Depression was ended as a result of WWII. By going to war, it is said, we managed to cure the greatest economic crisis in American history.

It is said that today’s economic crisis might to be as bad as the Great Depression. If such is the case perhaps we should take a lesson from the past.

Instead of turning our factories into vast production lines building planes, ships, tanks, and guns and declaring WWIII we might declare a make-believe WWIII and instead of sending these planes, ships, tanks, and guns to far off places where we can kill people and destroy property we could achieve the same effect by building our factories on ships and sending those ships to sea.

War is only our second best consumer of goods, our very best consumer of goods would be a factory mounted on a ship with the assembly line terminating at the ramp on the stern of the ship whereby the product can be easily dumped into the sea.

Such economic prosperity can only be imagined.

 

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Considering what WWII did to economy of Germany and Britain, I am amazed how anyone can believe this whole "war is good for the economy" canard. WWII, or rather its aftermath, was very good for the economy of United States. This was a very unusual example which somehow became a "war is good for the economy" meme.

Wars are good for the economy in the same sense that hurricanes and earthquakes are good for the economy. Not!

 

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I have read that many economists consider WWII is the cause for the end of the depression.

 

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Even the U.S got in Massive Debt from WWII. The U.S has not even fully felt the effects of THAT yet.

The depression was over in 39' let alone 42'. Yes WWII made industry Booming, however it did not kill the depression.

 

US government spending on WWII started in 1940, well before we entered the war, and corporate involvement in WWII started even earlier, in 1939. WWII is widely regarded as being responsible for ending the depression.

 

Well, I think that's bullshit. Even if that is true by the numbers, they borrowed from the future to obtain it.

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Certainly WWII caused A BOOM lasting well into the 60s, which has still not been paid for, every generation just passes that burden to the next...

GDP was recovered:

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I'm not saying times weren't tough(particularly compared to the posh lives we've lived AFTER WWII), but it wasn't a depression. It was in a period of recovery.

 

coberst, did you notice that at the end of WWII england decided to try for full employment by providing the NHS. The best idea right now would be for goverments to start providing employment in the social services areas as a stimulas for the economy

 

I thought our post WWII boom had to do with our having the only working industrial infrastructure left, apart from the USSR. That and cheap oil, and the war largely avoided any direct destruction of the mainland.

 

Ya pretty much. But it was gotten from borrowed/deficit spending. That would have been GOOD from today's perspective IF that debt was in fact paid.

USSR eventually went bankrupt(collapse) from the same exact thing(though with a completely different economic system). If the U.S does not start paying it's debts, it is DESTINED for the same result.

 

You can think whatever you wish. The vast majority of economists think otherwise.

That is the point. It took massive spending by the world's governments, and spending money they did not have, to lift us out of the depression.

Nobody here has said WWII was a depression. We have said that WWII ended the depression, not that the depression ended after WWII.

BTW, that the depression did not end until after WWII ended is exactly what some economists do say. Unemployment was down during WWII in part because we sent so many young men overseas and in part because jobs at home to build war machinery. Business was artificially buoyed during WWII by the massive government spending. The private sector segment of the economy was practically non-existent throughout WWII. Enforced rationing diverted the vast majority of the resources to the war effort. The private sector itself did not recover from the depression until well after WWII ended.

 

Did you even look at those charts DH or are you busy on reading what your favorite(and likely poor) economist is saying?

 

WWII started in late 1939, not late 1941. Foreign government spending in anticipation of war started well before war broke out. Some of those contracts went to US corporations -- exactly where you start seeing an uptick in the GNP graph. US government spending on the war started in 1940, not in 1941 -- exactly when you see an even larger uptick in the graph.

 

The chart is at 1929 levels in 1935. You don't need to tell me when WWII really began, I'm Canadian.

 

That's hilarious.

At least send the product to the land fill! ( think of the additional prosperity of garbage processing jobs and income!) (Please DON'T recycle!)

 

I think that our infrastructure is also in bad need of repair.

 

So maybe you should do something about it ....instead of just talk about it from the comforts of your home or office? All talk and no action is no way to get anything done.

Baron Max

 

I think that you fail to comprehend that learning and writing are forms of action.

 

No he's right. Since the government will not allow banks to fail, it's up to average joe people, to destroy them.

 

Good god in heaven!! Coberst, you actually and truly read someone else's post and ....oh, help me dear lord, .....you've actually responded like a normal human. I just can't believe it ....this is the second post of mine that you've responded to. Does that mean that I've finally, FINALLY, gotten through that thick fuckin' skull of yours?

Oh, and by the way, learning and writing is NOT what I call action. Anyone who calls that action is a wimpy, liberal, doo-gooder who wants the government to take care of them.

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Baron Max

 

nietzschefan why do you want a bank to fail?
would you have the same atitude about the farm which provides your food?
you do realise that if the bank fails the store you buy the food from will fail too because they will a) lose there assets and b) be unable to get the short term buiness loans nessary to run there buiness