ad-free
A marketplace for speech.
82,358 Hours of Speech
help
help
515,575 Transcriptions
add title (free)
add title (free)
406 Sources
add source €0.99
add source €0.99
Search:
Newsbud
Title: Debunking the "War is Good for the Economy" Myth
Published: 2014-06-18
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7vT6rtB5jE
Title: Debunking the "War is Good for the Economy" Myth
Published: 2014-06-18
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7vT6rtB5jE
1/19
the idea that the Great Depression was finally brought to an end by the onset of World War two has been a staple of history textbooks documentaries and various war propaganda for decades this myth continues to be perpetuated to the present day in nineteen forty three with the federal government spending more on defense than it had ever spent on relief or public works America finally reached full2/19
employment Roosevelt announced that Dr new deal have become doctor win the war the Great Depression which had held one third of a nation poverty for more than a decade it's over Roosevelt's new deal had but it was the war that brought prosperity to the idea of the war is good for the economy is needless to say fallacious argument which itself is based on incorrect economic data3/19
by definition military production output is not real wealth walls destroyed wealth raw than creating it in fact if you look at the figures for American economic activity and you strip out the war effects of people like Robert Higgs have shown what you can only conclude is that in fact the Great Depression does not really and until nineteen forty seven or nineteen forty eight and that the4/19
war simply conceals or covers up the continuing a low level of real wealth creating economic activity in the United States the idea that the economic activity surrounding militarize Asian represents a net economic gain is called the broken window fallacy this policy was named and identified by French economist Frederick best yet in his eighteen fifty essay that which is seen and that which is not seen in5/19
which he imagines the case of a shopkeeper whose careless sun breaks a pane of glass in a shop window your best yet example that which is seen is that the glazier comes performs the task of fixing the window and receive six Franks for his effort onlookers to the scene believe that the economy has actually been bolstered by this act of destruction since six Franks have been6/19
spent into it that otherwise would not have been but best yet notes that what is important is not what is seen but what is not seen it is not seen that as our shop keeper has spent six Frank's upon one thing he could not spend them upon another it is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace he would perhaps have replaced7/19
his old shoes or added another book to his library in short he would have employed to six ranks in some way which this accident has prevented similarly production for war is the broken window fallacy writ large economic dean's produced by government spending on munitions in vehicle manufacturer and supplying equipping the troops are not games at all money has merely been diverted to the pockets of the8/19
defense contractors via the political cronies in their back pocket so why is this important because sadly this myth is being played on by the war mongering class to once again push the idea that war is good and even necessary for economic progress this time it is not just manufacturer supplies are munitions that are being touted but wars ability to justify government spending on investment no matter9/19
how unlikely the threat or whether it is indeed completely made up this warped thinking holds that such lies and exaggerations are the answer to our current economic problems if if we if we discovered that %HESITATION your space aliens were planning to attack and we needed a a massive buildup to counter the this space alien threat on and really is inflation and budget deficits took secondary place10/19
to that on this slump would be over in eighteen months and then if we discovered whoops we made a mistake there aren't actually so we need Orson Welles better watch your side no that's set that so there was a Twilight Zone episode like this which other scientists focused on a daily and threat in order to achieve world peace with this kind we don't need it we11/19
headed north to get some fiscal stimulus sadly it is not just intellectual deficient like Paul Krugman making this case in a new op ed in The New York Times Tyler Cowen of George Mason University argues that technological advances from nuclear research to rocketry to internet and robotics have all been spurred by defense spending and this war or threats of war are necessary to continue the advance12/19
of civilization why these technologies are ends in themselves or more valuable than the tens of millions of lives lost in the previous great wars is a question left predictably unexamined perhaps more to the point cow whenever addresses why such advances could not take place in the absence of war or without the motivation of advancing the methods of killing as their impetus what is most fundamentally upsetting13/19
about the mindset that justifies carnage in the name of economic gain is that economic gain is usually measured in abstract concepts like GDP growth or increasing equities markets that have no or even negative correlation with the livelihood of the poorest members of society income actually shrank by zero point seven percent for ninety nine percent of Americans during the suppose that recovery of two thousand nine to14/19
two thousand eleven for the top one percent income grew eleven point five percent this is the type of help that massive government spending on bank bailouts another stimulus measures invariably creates in times of war the situation is even more perverse money is created as debt owed it to the banks backed up by the average working taxpayer to pay politically connected defense contractors to create bombs to15/19
kill poor brown people on the other side of the planet this is called economic progress taken to its logical conclusion there was only one more effective way of solving the problem of poverty so it's a rerun every viable model through the computer and it looks like there just are no easy solutions to this recession yeah raising the eight C. cutting VAT raising interest right raising interest16/19
rates arm creates the lower income tax raising PAC but it seems to really help have you tried kindle a poll with respect do we have this conversation who would you say have you tried it no of course we have to try this we're not going to try it I'm not saying do it I'm just saying running through the computer save it would work whether it would17/19
work it is not the issue so you think it might work has pretty right wing no I don't think it'll work we think it money because they do live in NYC they clean with we need them for all the things that we can find see anything here immigrants that doesn't easily knife just run into the computer check well no new company we haven't done it drunk18/19
as a joke let's just do it quickly I'm not going to do it why not because it's offensive evil I don't see the objection the computer is not going to be offended just run it through the Beatles I know it wouldn't help to kill the poll or I'll stop going on about it after all if we're willing to believe the lie that sacrificing lives is good19/19
for the economy why not go that one step further this video is brought to you by the subscribers of boiling frog post dot com for more information on this and other topics please go to boiling trucks pose dot com for more information and commentary from James Corbett please go to corporate report dot com
