Libertarian Thread #2: We Shall Never Die!

Oh well then I misunderstood you earlier. I thought you were implying that one of us had said that, not that you actually meant to say it yourself. 

I never said the war was a good thing, but the depression ended with the war. Why? Because almost every country everywhere in the world went around buying things or selling things to kill each other with. It's not that hard to figure out. Your claim directly clashes with almighty wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_depression   

King Crimson776 wrote: Isn't getting involved in a war just as much an act of government as any public works project that FDR proposed? It seems like that might be why you two are disagreeing now.

Of course, it's certainly not a good thing to go to war to reboot your economy. I never said that, all I said was that war essentially ended the Great Depression. 

Equality 7-2521 wrote: How would that end the depression? You should stop thinking of an economic downturn as numbers on a tally sheet and instead think of something physical like a standard of living. Could you explain to me how nations buying guns reinvigorated. the economy?

An economic downturn is exactly that, numbers on a tally sheet. It's a significant drop in production or spending in a country that can be caused by various things. Of course, a fast growing economy is not always a good thing. Mexico and China have some of the largest economies in the world, but both countries suffer massive poverty and income inequality. In the case of WWII, America's industries suddenly started working again to produce guns, ammunition, etc. for the war effort. So suddenly, there were millions of jobs available and people actually had money to buy things with. Obviously, this is a mobilized economy (AKA one built around war) and it is far from ideal or something you actually want. However, the unemployment dramatically dropped and spending dramatically rose causing a great increase in GDP meaning a huge upturn in the economy.