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On Fri, Feb 08, 2008 at 06:03:46PM -0800, William Chops Westfield wrote:
> [moved to [OT]]
> 
> On Feb 8, 2008, at 4:58 PM, John Gardner wrote:
> 
> > the untold story
> > of the Cold War is just how expensive nuclear weapons are.
> > For openers, the first four cost in excess of $2 billion, in 1945
> > USD. 40 years on, something like 30,000 of the things had been
> > produced, for an expenditure that can only be guessed at - Let
> > it be said that a careful examination of US economic statistics
> > over the period reveal an economic black hole
> 
> Really?  Wasn't the duration of "The Cold War" pretty much concurrent  
> with the period of the largest economic, technological, and  
> scientific growth anywhere, ever?  Probably social and philosophical  
> too; there's nothing quite like a contrasting opinion...   It seems  
> to me that cold wars are significantly better than warm or hot wars,  
> for instance, and the current rate of US expenditure in the middle  
> east, JUST on the war itself, makes weapons programs look like mere  
> drops in a bucket...

Hmm... I dunno, I've been looking into the effects of war on the economy
for a class, and for instance found that the dow jones average stayed
completely flat between 1965 and 1985. That said, that's the only chart
I've seen from that period yet, still gotta make up one for the US GDP
as well as find data for other indexes. Besides, what's good for
scientific and technological growth might not be good for the economy.

- -- 
http://petertodd.org
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