Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc started this discussion 2 hours ago#136,171
You’d think the point of war is you kill the enemy, but then I googled how many German soldiers there were in World War Two, and then I googled how many German soldiers survived World War Two.
It’s interesting actually, you’d think that most of the time war is soldiers killing soldiers, but statistically, it seems like people just sorta give up because they don’t wanna die.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) double-posted this 2 hours ago, 1 minute later[^][v]#1,445,649
It’s also interesting that if you look up Japan… most of them… it’s weird that they have that reputation… when you look at the data of how many soldiers they started with, how many died vs how many were left over. Idk it’s just weird.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) replied with this 2 hours ago, 50 seconds later, 9 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,651
Maybe this is dumb but I assumed how it worked is you just kill them until there aren’t any left and then that’s called winning. Apparently not, apparently giving up is the more common thing. It’s just a game to see who quits first.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) double-posted this 2 hours ago, 56 seconds later, 10 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,652
@1,445,650 (B)
Destroying wealth or building wealth? I can see how bombing a country would stop it from developing, but I also think most wars are fought for financial purposes in that, the whole idea behind empire is to exploit resources (people are also resources).
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) triple-posted this 2 hours ago, 1 minute later, 11 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,653
@1,445,651 (Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc)
That’s the problem with the Middle East tho, they realized that all you have to do to "win" is you just don’t quit. And I think we haven’t really figured out what to do with that.
Anonymous B replied with this 2 hours ago, 3 minutes later, 14 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,654
@1,445,652 (Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc)
All war really does is destroy wealth. Buildings/infrastructure destroyed, people lost which mean less workers/tax payers, opportunity cost of paying for things related to war instead of investing in other things, etc. The real question you should be asking is "If all war does is destroy wealth, why does anyone engage in it?".
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) replied with this 2 hours ago, 6 minutes later, 21 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,655
@previous (B)
Well it destroys the world’s wealth, definitely. Although, it can make the country that wins wealthier. For example, World War Two made the entire world poorer, but the US won and was on the opposite side of all the world from all the fighting so 15 years later in 1960 we had 40% of the world GDP, which greatly advantages our country. We didn’t start World War Two, so that’s not really like our fault, but the British Empire for example, that was probably pretty profitable, exploiting all the land in Africa and India and Canada and bringing all that wealth back to this tiny little island. It’s bad for the world, but there is a selfish logic to it.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) double-posted this 1 hour ago, 3 minutes later, 25 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,656
I think back then we were almost 6% of the world population, now we’re 4% with 25% of the GDP. The British Empire had a quarter of the population, the land, and the world GDP. So WWII really benefited the United States probably more than any war has ever benefitted any country in history ever.
Anonymous B replied with this 1 hour ago, 3 minutes later, 28 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,657
@1,445,655 (Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc)
It's a calculation. You're going to destroy wealth regardless because that's the nature of war. Those who wage wars assume what they'll get out of winning is worth more (to them at least) than the wealth they'll destroy during the war. You don't even necessarily have to be fighting for something tangible it could be over religion but those leaders would still tell you the religious victory is worth more than 10 billion dollars and millions of lives lost
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) replied with this 1 hour ago, 1 minute later, 29 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,658
Then obviously that wealth difference after WWII was so extreme, European empires fell because they went bankrupt so colonialism ended in India and Africa, but after that the only wealthy countries were just countries in Europe and East Asia where US troops never left that were allied with the US after World War Two because they benefitted from the United States. Then obviously China broke that and now it’s unclear whether that will be maintained given demographic trends.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) double-posted this 1 hour ago, 10 minutes later, 39 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,662
@1,445,657 (B)
War is definitely bad, some people are psychopaths though. Like Vladimir Putin for example. If you look into his whole career as the president of Russia, he’s never shown regard for human life regardless of whether they’re Russian or not Russian.
Anonymous B replied with this 1 hour ago, 1 minute later, 40 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,663
It also comes with the territory of being wealthy. Let's say you're a wealthy nation with big fancy cities and lots of resources. Growth will slow at a certain point because most of the useful land has been developed, most of the buildings needed are built, and maybe your population even explodes so you have a lot of people. Well what happens when you have a lot of money and wealth? That's right you want to spend that. So how do you spend this wealth? You get into a war. Boom bang pow you won the war so let's look at the results. You have less people now which means plenty of job openings for the people that are left, plenty of jobs because somebody has to rebuild all the shit that got blown up, new weapons need to be made to replace all the ones wasted, and hell maybe you even got some new land from the other county that your companies can now exploit. Pretty good deal, right?
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) replied with this 1 hour ago, 3 minutes later, 44 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,664
@previous (B)
I guess that calculation could have made sense in the past. Obviously I can’t read his mind, but I’ve heard the idea that Putin might have invaded Ukraine because Russia has a low birth rate and a bad economy since its underpopulated, so he invaded Ukraine hoping he could use them as workers since I guess most of the industrial output of the Soviet Union as a superpower probably came from all the other countries that are more densely populated that broke off. But the only issue with that is Russia won’t recover from the war because people won’t have children to replace the dead soldiers so they’re actually just shooting themselves in the foot.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) double-posted this 1 hour ago, 1 minute later, 45 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,665
Also the US I think is a different case since we’re a naval power much more so than a land power, our losses tend to be pretty small since nobody has been brave enough to sink a US ship since Japan did in World War Two. Probably mostly because of nuclear weapons. The number of US troops killed in wars following Vietnam tend to be, still bad obviously, but relatively small compared to how many people die on the other side.
Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc (OP) triple-posted this 1 hour ago, 2 minutes later, 48 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,666
Especially since we’re so wealthy, we have very good weapons that can kill a lot of people that other countries can’t afford. We don’t really go to war with wealthy nations.
Anonymous B replied with this 1 hour ago, 59 seconds later, 49 minutes after the original post[^][v]#1,445,667
@1,445,665 (Mr. Bloody Lemonade !0JqexkOGBc)
Don't worry the defense contractors just need the US military to destroy their own weapons so they can buy more from the contractors. Those planes the Iranians blew up? Yeah that'll be billions more into the pockets of these defense companies CHA CHING BAYBEEE