Tom Walker quoted WF Hixson:
> "The really important lesson of what happened between 1939 and 1946
> is completely lost when economists repeatedly make statements that
> imply, or at least leave the reader free to infer, that the war was a
> necessary condition if the depression was to end.
I've felt "free to infer" that war was the key feature because war is
the only context in which we and the financial "power structure"
[Hixson] find it acceptable to manufacture millions or hundreds of
millions of tons of food, machinery, tools, fuel and weapons etc. and
train 3 million men to methodically destroy it before it gets into the
market.
What do the Priests of the Market Ghod say about the competition
offered by WW II and Korean military surplus goods, far better in
quality and lower in price than any civilian products and available in
good supply until about 1970? I still use a 1945 Bantam Jeep trailer
that never made it to the war. What do the PotMG say about doing all
that without a war? We'll make all those sleeping bags, planes,
shells, can openers, khaki shoelaces and vastly expensive experiments
that might become secret weapons and just dump them into the recycling
bin (or the Mariana Trench if recycling them costs some corporation a
profitable market). Talk about Future Work! Without the need to
actually fight a war, we could put a little more emphasis in "defense"
spending on creating niches for artists, performers, dreamers and such
unmarketable products as character, parenthood or integrity. Paid
work for all!
Just what *do* the economists and PotMG say about depression (or
recession or stagflation or bifurcation or whatever) recovery by
simply throwing away (with or without a war) approximately a whole
second GNP's worth of work and resources?
(I know what Jay would say and he'd be right: totally insane to create
fiat rivets to pay people to double the rate at which *real* rivets
get pulled just so the rivet bookkeeping will stay in balance and crew
will be able to "pay" for their eats instead of going on Ship's
Welfare.)
- Mike
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Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
URL: http://www.mit.edu:8001/people/mspencer/home.html
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