Cephus
DP Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2007
- Messages
- 31,034
- Reaction score
- 11,932
- Location
- CA
- Gender
- Male
- Political Leaning
- Slightly Conservative
Germany was a boom economy that would have succumbed to a bust had it had enough time to run its course. China will be the same way. The US during WWII did not have a growing economy. Sure, you may see GDP growing and economic indicators being great for the period, but it sucked to live through that. People were dying and goods were rationed. I wouldn't exactly point out war as a good example of how to grow your economy.
It wasn't during the war that mattered, it was the aftermath that made America a world power. We had factories geared up for war-time production, staffed with experienced workers who could easily be translated over to civilian goods. We had companies who were used to making the absolute best-quality merchandise for the war effort, which made us a world-leader in many technologies and consumer goods. Unlike most of Europe, we didn't have to rebuild, which gave us a leg-up on the competition. We took it and ran with it for years before we eventually squandered that superiority.
The only way to do it again is to have a massive, world-encompassing, publically supported war. Bush tried to do it. He failed.