I have read numerous threads claiming that war drives the economy and is actually a money making scenario for the nation involved. In money making i dont mean that they do it on purpose, as this would be condemmed for obvious reasons, but i find it hard to believe that a nations government can spend so much money on the entire process and anyone can feel that its profitable. Sure certain business with thrive but in the scheme of things surely it is detrimental in the long term. Am i wrong?
the profit in war comes from the side of the victor, after the conflict.
during the conflict the nation state's manufacturing sector is geared up into wartime production. plants that typically produced 40-60 hours a week now work around the clock. sounds pretty simple but its very complicated. new technologies developed for battle are developed, later, after the war those same tech's can be geared for non military use. and also, the largest factor is the dismissal of a large portion of the military that is no longer needed after the war is over.
so in a nutshell, what happens is this:
An armies worth of highly trained and disciplined men and women suddenly find themselves in need of a job... and a geared up manufacturing sector provides those jobs. because it is such a well trained and disciplined workforce, productivity greatly increases, allowing manufacturers to reduce prices and overhead costs. this drives profits, which sooner or later will find its way into the workforce by ways of pay raises, benefits, etc etc. those same workers in turn spend more, which causes higher demand for production, which usually means overtime for the workers... which gives them more money to spend, and the cycle starts again.
prime example- the US economy after WWII for a period of 30 years or so. your still reaping the benefits of that economic boom, and most dont realize it.
yet for every winner, there is a loser. sometimes the loser can suffer so severly that it drives another conflict.
prime example-
Germany's econimc depression after WWI provided the correct political atmosphere for hitler to be able to seize power. and we all know what happened with that.
in war, there is no profit, only suffering. some suffer more than others, but the end result is always loss, in one form or the other.
war is probably mankinds biggest failure.