War! Huh! What is it good for?
Artificially propping up aggregate demand which leads to economic growth and the trend towards full employment.
The Military-Industrial Complex is an Iron Triangle which is kind of like a permanent stimulus package, spending money on intrinsically pointless endeavours because apart from the presence of hardware the money spent on defence does not have any benefit into the next year; but that money passes into the rest of the economy which then grows, thanks to multiplier effects.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Employing scientists in the pursuit of developing technologies which lead to better products and an improvement in the quality of life. Would we have mobile phones if satellites weren't invented and deployed? Would we have satellites if rockets weren't invented? Would we have rockets if German scientists hadn't been employed to find more efficient ways to blow up people and things that were far away?
Would we have cheap air travel without efficient aeroplanes? Would we have had those aeroplanes if the aerospace industry hadn't been employed to develop better aircraft which are used as weapons? Would we even have jet engines if the various aircraft manufacturers weren't trying to make planes faster, so they they could outrun their opponents?
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Giving historians something to write about in the broader context of the story of civilisation.
No one wins a land war in Asia unless you are the Mongols; the Romans controlled a great swathe of Europe and the British sailed across the seas and stole countries with the cunning use of flags.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Demonstrating that mankind is fundamentally selfish and despite our own efforts, that selfishness can not be eliminated. What were the underlying reasons of the United States Civil War or the two World Wars where Germany and Japan invaded places? Selfishness? You have what I want and I'm going to take it by force.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Showing that power if concentrated in the hands of a few bad mad men, is bad for society and the overall well being of mankind.
Think of the French Revolution, the English Civil War, the American Revolution.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
The physical destruction of capital and the means of production in masse; which is the only way yet devised to reduce the rate of return on capital to the point where it is lower than economic growth and wages growth, which are the conditions necessary to reduce inequality.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Giving material to journalists, poets, novelists and song writers, to pen things of lasting cultural impact.
It's a Long Way to Tipperary, Homage to Catalonia, Gone With The Wind...
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Giving some people the theatre to display such qualities as courage, loyalty, endurance and discipline; making them into heroes who then inspire others towards those same qualities.
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War! Huh! What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing? Say it again? It's good for something; if only as a side effect of the mass destruction of property and innocent people's lives.
Say it again.
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