People who only know me from online are generally surprised to hear that I am obsessed with war films and history of war books… although given how much I write about war and violence here, is it really that surprising?
This morning I was reading about competing plane design companies in Nazi Germany; most obviously Messerschmitt and Junkers, but also smaller ventures like Blohm und Voss (who built the bizarre little plane above — a glider-fighter meant to be towed en masse behind bombers at 500 mph and then released). The Soviets also had competing bureas (Mikoyan/MiG and Sukhoi being the big ones), and of course so does America. A lot of people have been making a lot of money for a long time selling war machines to governments.
Admittedly the Nazi party basically took control of Junkers and the other aerospace companies as the war progressed, but still, the one book I've always wanted to write/read is a profit-loss analysis of war. That is, adding up property damage and other asset losses, real estate gains and losses, equipment gains and losses, manufacturing costs and profits, job markets, and so on — who comes out on top? That is, did the people of Britain profit from WWII? I doubt it. But did Rolls Royce profit from WWII? You bet they did.
And that's true for every modern war.
Modern war exists for one primary purpose — making money. I also believe that the very nature of the corporate model ensures that. The corporation is basically an automated system; a really dumb feedback loop essentially. If it's not destroyed, once it fills its natural market, it begins seeking out new “food” — in the form of war. It has no choice — it is literally an unavoidable byproduct of its design.
However, I don't believe that it makes economic sense. As far as I can tell, war burns resources. Yes, there are parasitic organizations that work to induce war and they profit from it, but unless we can make a case that war is kind of like fire — and you do need a forest fire every once in a while to keep the forest healthy — I don't believe war makes financial sense in the long run.
PS. Cuba is next… as always…
Note: CUBA is on the list for corporate reasons. Why are they mentioning bioweapons? Because the American pharmaceutical companies HATE Cuba, which knocks off their products and sells vaccines to third world countries for less than America wants, thereby both violating their patents and destroying their pricing model…
Post a Comment