THE BODY BAGS
As the war clouds gather round us again the War Will Make Us Rich theory of economics rears its ugly head in the bars and even in some business circles once more. Even state and national historians have insisted the theory is true that war will save our economy and in some magical way boost the supply of bucks bumping around in our pockets as we "SPEND OUR WAY out of a depression."
Now I know you are a professor of economics and so good with figures that the President lets you count his little gold bricks every night. Unfortunately, Not even the alleged purchase of 30,000 body bags keeps the new advocates of the War-is-Wonderful and will make us rich theory from fervently contemplating the burst of prosperity this new war will bring to us.
According to the War-is-Wonderful and will make us rich theory so prevalent among some drooling politicians and certain other barflies: as the body bags fill up with the mangled youth of our nation, each parent can know that every child so sacrificed was a hero worth a sack full of gold bullion to the economy.
Does that make sense to you? I wonder, Were we richer every time a cargo ship went down? Were we richer for removing the healthiest workers from the job market and paying them to stand at attention in harm's way with money our government rolled off the hot presses?
If this theory is true then, at the end of World War I we should have got down on our knees and thanked the Germans for making us richer. Instead the allies insisted on imposing the harsh reparations that are said by these same barflies to have fueled Hitler's rise to power and precipitated World War II.
In World War II Germany pounded England without mercy. Was England richer because of it? Or was Churchill right when he said there was nothing but beer cans left to throw at the German invaders when they arrived because there were no pounds left in England's Royal Treasury?
Were we made richer because the Japanese destroyed our Pacific fleet and we had to replace it, along with the trained men who were killed in that savage attack?
When German cities and tanks and munitions were destroyed by the allies did we make that economy soar? Did the Viet Nam war prosper us – or [ since they won the war, with Jane's help.. Did we ever pay Janey Girl as much as she was worth? ] Did the first Gulf War enrich us? We have been told the attack on the World Trade Center was an act of war perpetrated by terrorists, so when it collapsed did a huge mound of gold magically rise from the shes and pour into our coffers? Has anything at all come from the War on Terror?
I submit that only a few friends of the Government got rich on any of these wonderful ventures, that only a few (lucky) workers received enhanced wages, and that the rest of US tightened our belts and suffered the consequences because there was a war on. In fine I completely reject the War-is-Wonderful and will make us rich theory. Not even the Women's March on our nation's capital raised a thin shilling and they were smashing windows, shattering the school bus windshields and, of course, wholesale looting. And burning police cars. When I saw what those Liberal Ladies were doling, I chucked my voter registration in the nearest trash can. If there is a way to do it, I vote for Liberal Ladies be conscripted in the Marines forthwith
It is common practice for the Government to blame the mean old oil companies for gouging the American Public with rising gas prices -- and it works -- kind of like Hitler staying in power by blaming the Jews for cornering the supply of money. In these modern days the focus has shifted to blaming the Arabs for charging too much for a barrel of oil. But actually, the underlying reason for these tragic increases is because believing the War-is-Wonderful and will make us rich theory is bleeding US to death.
Blame the oil companies, blame the Arabs, blame the terrorists, blame anybody you want to for thwarting the economic power of this War-is-Wonderful theory, but the fact remains that even after all these wonderful wars, our country is now poor, not rich. A dollar won't even buy a nickel candy bar any more.
We owe Communist China more money than any other nation on earth. American tourists traveling abroad are discovering that the American dollar is now viewed more and more regularly with suspicion, and often accepted only with genuine reluctance.
You see this theory about war making us rich posted in state owned museums, you read it alluded to in many speeches and political writing, and you hear it praised in bars and taverns all across the land: is there any sense at all contained in the War-is-Wonderful and will make us rich theory? Well, ask yourself these simple questions: Can you get a drought to end by pouring your last gallon of water down a rat hole?
Can you put more bread on the table by burning off half the wheat in the field? You know as well as I do the answer to all these questions is a resounding NO!
If any of these questions could be answered with an affirmative YES there could only be three variables that make war profitable.
I'll examine these one by one to see if any of them have a chance of working. First, Does war pay because we kill off our young people? If so, then why send them off to some dirty, filthy, unhealthy foreign country to do them in? It would be much simpler to just line all our High School football players up on the streets during every Fourth of July celebration -- with the richest kids right out there in front since they are worth more -- and have our mayors direct the police to mow them down with brand new machine guns.
You don't think this will do it, huh?
Okay, Does war pay because we scrap our equipment in a war?
If so, then let's roll all of it into the ocean and make it do a David Crockett "SKOW" as it goes down. Maybe if we auction off the film rights to Hollywood we can even get paid twice. That might do the trick, don't you think so? No?
Well, Does war pay because we spend our money with reckless abandon?
If that is true, we don't have to waste it on killing and destruction that could make us enemies... Instead, let's pay the mothers of this great nation for raising bright children.
For each child producing straight A-s pay the mother (or guardian) $20,000.00 per year.
For each child producing nothing less than a B, pay the mother $15,000.00 And, for each child producing nothing less than a C, pay the mother $10,000.00
Wouldn't that be a hoot? Instead of crying because they have lost a child in some crummy, jerkwater country, there would be tears of joy because their child had applied a few brains to the chalkboard!
You know, that idea might work, at that!
How can anyone with a brain in their head believe wars ever produce anything besides indebtedness, death and destruction? When the war is over and that illusion of loose gold quits spinning, we invariably still have to pay for the war because we have nothing but Tricky Dick gold left to shore up our ravaged treasury with. Killing off the youth of this planet does not improve anyone's economy. Just since the year 1900 CE. we have killed off over 100 million people. Let those who believe in the theory that War Will Make Us Rich, count up the carnage of wars past and explain -- in simple English -- where the replacement funds for the money we rolled off the hot presses came from.
Perhaps some college professor teaching the Government that war can make us rich can explain these particular figures: In 1914 our national debt was $2,912,499,269.16 By 1919 our national debt was $27,390,970,113.12 Remember too that from then, right up to this very day we are still paying benefits to some of the veterans who came home from that war. Add it ALL up, professor. Tell us: How much prosperity did that Great War bring to us?
On November 7, 2016, debt held by the public was $14.3 trillion or about 76% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[5][6][7][8]Intragovernmental holdings stood at $5.4 trillion, giving a combined total gross national debt of $19.8 trillion or about 106% of the previous 12 months of GDP.[7] $6.2 trillion or approximately 45% of the debt held by the public was owned by foreign investors, the largest of which were China and Japan at about $1.25 trillion for China and $1.15 trillion for Japan
It's a fact of nature, an immutable law, if you will; Destruction does not breed wealth either in its progress, or in its wake. Nor does it matter if it erupts from the loins of our political lions or from killer hurricane winds. It never has. It never will.
In July of 2008 Foreclosure Filings Soared 121 Percent over 2007. 220,000 homes were lost to bank repossessions in the second quarter alone. That is nearly triple the number from the same period in 2007.
Back in 1939 our national debt was only $40,439,532,411.11 By 1945 our national debt was $258,682,187,409.93 and again, we had not yet begun to pay off our debts to the veterans who fought and bled to finish our war.
War made us Rich?
Get real!
Although only 148 soldiers were killed and 467 soldiers wounded in the first Gulf War, ten years later we have almost two out of every five Gulf War Veterans on disability. Tell me, What kind of wealth has that little war created for US?
On top of that, we are still paying for World War I
We are still paying for World War II
We are still paying for Korea
And, we are still paying for VietNam
Do I need to go on populating this list?
Well, yes. We need to mention the Spanish American war is still costing us money.
But, The Fact is, NONE of these Wars made us Rich:
Since 1952 the international reserve position of the U.S. has fallen from 50% of the world's total to a mere 3% of that total - - In spite of all our wars and fighting that was going to make us rich, that means we have created a 94% drop in our net worth-bucket.
In short, there is no basis in fact of any kind for the War Will Make
US Rich theory -- Perhaps we want to believe it is true because of some racial superstition that the old law of sacrifice is working some kind of subtle magic. You may remember it.
In biblical times hundreds of infants were sacrificed on the altars of Baal in order to improve the economy. If we pursue the theory that filling up X number of body bags with the pride of our nation will make us rich, are we any wiser now than they were then?
Don't doubt for a moment that I'm a born-again pacifist. I was in the front line when the truce terminated in Korea, and I volunteered to be on the firing line when Kennedy showed the Russians that our youth were downright eager for them to cross that line and start something.
However, if another war is ever forced upon us by an enemy -- let our anger at the cost help us to respond in sharp, decisive, furious strength, to fight our battles on principles of righteousness, with our eyes open, knowing all the while that it is costing us money, time, and lives.
I beg of you, don't ever welcome war because of some secret hope that our financial coffers will be filled by those bags of silver spilling their guts out over our great nation.
It won't happen.
War is Hell.
War does not make money;
War COSTS money. It is that plain. It is that simple. Consequently,
NO war will EVER make us rich;
it won't even make us richer.
The Truth Is,
War COSTS US money.
Proclamation
Inasmuch as we know that nations, like individuals, are subjected to the punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of Civil War that now desolates our land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand that preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us and we have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all of these blessings were provided by some superior wisdom or virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God who made us.
It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended power to confess our national sins and pray for clemency and forgiveness.