Quote:
Originally Posted by shakran
Well then we must all be hallucinating this crappy economy, because we're in the middle of 2 wars, war production is high, and yet the economy's in the crapper. If the war pulled us out of the Great Depression then why are we in a major recession despite having been at war for 8 years?
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Very simply put, in WW2 our factories were near capacity in churning out goods both for military and civilian use. When the war ended people came home and mass consumerism began, the factories were churning out products for consumers, the military was pumping money into companies for R&D and we had come through the Depression because of the war, the VA loans for housing and education. Companies thrived because the government helped them with lucrative contracts and because we were building highways and a great infrastructure.
Reagan started it by taking away the lucrative contracts. Then we got "free trade"....
Now, we are at war but our industry doesn't produce anything. The R&D contracts don't help put people to work, the infrastructure has been largely ignored and is falling apart. We rely on steel, cars, and manufacturing from overseas so a war isn't pulling us out like last time. If anything it is hurting us because we became reliant on the goods from other countries.
So to compare how WW2 brought us out and how this war isn't helping is foolish. Times are different. In WW2 we were self reliant and produced.... this war we are dependent and have little production and that which we do have is in severe trouble because of our reliance on foreign made goods.