• I_Clean_Here@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    This period of peace in Western Europe is pretty special and I would like to keep it that way, thx

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      19
      ·
      1 month ago

      This period of peace in Western Europe

      France: “We haven’t gone to war with Germany in decades!”

      Me: “What about Libya?”

      France: …

      Me: “Algeria? Argentina? Rwanda? The Ivory Coast? Somalia? Chad? Basque Country? Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia?”

      France: sound of FAMAS F1 cocking

    • kameecoding@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      1 month ago

      That’s because the EU was created with the purpose of making an interconnected market where going to war is simply way too costly.

      As the other commenter said, there is a war in Europe though.

      • BluesF@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        Ah but don’t forget, we in the UK left the EU. Bo Jo already considered invading the Netherlands once.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 month ago

      American Economics Professor: “We pulled ourselves out of the Great Depression by entering WW2”

      American Economics Student: “I can’t afford my car payment and my rent just doubled. When can we re-invade the South Pacific?”

      • untorquer@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        1 month ago

        And nothing to do with those pesky socialist reforms of the new deal. No this social reforms ruined everything! Must kill for equity!

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          1 month ago

          In fairness, if you get under the hood of the New Deal benefits, they relieved a lot of immediate suffering and mobilized a workforce that had been functionally abandoned by the private sector.

          But they didn’t “grow the economy” in the same way as the enormous investment in the Military Industrial Complex achieved. The Citizens Conservation Corps and the Social Security Administration didn’t create the kind of high paying engineering and manufacturing jobs that state demand for thousands of new tanks and ships achieved.

          WW2 full mobilization of the economy wasn’t just taking in the slack of a depressed market. It was a command economy in all but name, dictating every aspect of the industrial chain, from extraction to expenditure to recovery and recycling.

          The tragedy of WW2 is that we could only permit this kind of logistical achievement for the purpose of joining a bloodbath in Europe, North Africa, and East Asia. As soon as Roosevelt passed, Truman began reprivatizing the economy as quickly as possible.

          • untorquer@lemmy.world
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            4
            ·
            1 month ago

            Yeah that’s fair. But the works and practice in mobilizing the workforce in the new deal played a big part in the US having industrial capability prior to WWII. Not mentioning other logistics, the power grid improvement alone may have made the difference in the war effort even being possible for the US. After the war private industry continued to benefit from cheap energy coming from those same projects. Hell if there’s a miuntain range in your state you’re almost certainly getting some of your power from a hydro plant made in the 30’s.

            • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              1 month ago

              But the works and practice in mobilizing the workforce in the new deal played a big part in the US having industrial capability prior to WWII.

              Hard to power the 1940s industrial economy without coal. And hard to generate coal without an electrification of the Tennessee Valley. Without a doubt.

              Hell if there’s a miuntain range in your state you’re almost certainly getting some of your power from a hydro plant made in the 30’s.

              Given his attitude towards public works, it’s very funny that Hoover has the nation’s largest dam named after him.

              • untorquer@lemmy.world
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                3
                ·
                1 month ago

                There’s also the west coast. The damming of the Columbia, while a natural disaster, made the region viable for manufacture and ship building. In some ways it lead to the possibility for the tech industry as well for better or worse.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 month ago

      I wish. Our students are kittens compared to European students. The police are going to riot anyways, stop bringing the kid’s gloves.

    • Etterra@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      Yeah but at least we limit ours to small scale atrocities committed by civilians, and not all-out civil war. And proxy wars. And not-a-war-wars. And helping others with their own wars genocides.

      Fuck. Nevermind I guess.