General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: We just can't afford to take care of all the poor people in the world. [View all]hfojvt
(37,573 posts)Once I made a decent living working for the MIC. Had I stuck with it, I could have lived pretty well and raised a family and so on. You think the hundreds of thousands of people employed by the military and the people employed by the contractors are NOT spending their money and stimulating the economy? That's just absurd. That's not the way an economy works.
Now the actual WAGING of war has a negative impact, it ends the productive lives of perfectly healthy people and it destroys perfectly good buildings and roads and bridges and other infrastructure and supplies. It burns a lot of petroleum in jet fuel, helicopters and tanks and in moving supplies around the world.
But even that could be said to create jobs - for undertakers, but also for re-building. Blowing up a bomb and then buying more bombs stimulates the economy just like blowing up a firecracker and then buying more firecrackers. It's a stupid activity, but it gives people something to do, something, apparently, that some people WANT to do.
And sometimes, with our silly economic system - having nothing to do is one of the worst things ever - in terms of employment.
It shouldn't be, but it is.