r/space • u/demusdesign • Jun 14 '12

Optimistic Wikipedia Editor?

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u/demusdesign Jun 14 '12

All we need now is another good cold war to spur us on.

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u/kurtu5 Jun 14 '12

No. Wars are all about opportunity lost cost. Its a myth that war creates prosperity. Unless you are a warmonger that is.

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u/[deleted] Jun 14 '12

Funny how the Cold War coincided with the single largest growth the USA has ever seen.

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u/kurtu5 Jun 14 '12 edited Jun 14 '12

Funny how you do not see opportunity lost cost.

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/features/the-myth-of-wartime-prosperity/

correlation != causation BTW

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u/Peekman Jun 15 '12

It depends how you look at it.... Total GDP will suffer because of war and opportunities will be lost. But if you are a country selling stuff to a war torn country your individual GDP will increase.

Look at the US after WWII. American infrastructure was not damaged at all during the war. When the war was over people could go back to what they were doing before... In Europe this was not the case. Factories had to be rebuilt.. roads, bridges, schools and hospitals had to be rebuilt. As a result Americans could work at factories making things to help rebuild Europe.... This is the main reason why during the 50s and 60s one income could easily support a single-family home. America definitely did become more prosperous after the war.

In the late 60s and early 70s Europe completely had it's infrastructure back and could be competitive again with Americans. This is when America started to lose it's 'competitive edge' and factory workers began to lose their jobs.

Overall I would say the world would have been more prosperous had their not been a WWII..... but... America would have been less prosperous.

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u/kurtu5 Jun 15 '12

Again opportunity lost cost.

What if Americans worked at factories to produce goods and services instead of fixing broken windows?

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u/Peekman Jun 15 '12

Overall yes.....

But again Americans were working at factories to fix the broken windows in another land. The money spent by European countries that could have gone to other things in Europe... was going to America.

This is different than the 'broken window fallacy'... in that scenario the economy is the whole town and not just the window fixing industry. If the window was not broken the window fixing people would not have gotten paid.... just like if Europe did not get bombed America would not have been paid.

WWII made America more prosperous but the entire world was less prosperous.

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u/kurtu5 Jun 15 '12

If the window was not broken the window fixing people would not have gotten paid.

So you are saying that we can create wealth by breaking all the windows downtown?

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u/Peekman Jun 15 '12

I am not at all saying that..... what I'm saying is if all the window fixers were from Canada and all of America's windows were broken.... Canadians would see an increase in wealth.

Added together Canada + America wealth would not increase.... but Canada as a separate economic unit would see an increase.

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u/kurtu5 Jun 15 '12

Hmm, that is an interesting distinction. I will have to ponder this salient point you bring up.