Japan's 'Period of Great Righteousness' Continues

admkenshin

As others have said that sounds pretty dodgy. For instance by most measures the modern west consumes far, far more than even back in the 50's & 60's.

It could be argued that without the war, with a lot more people alive and wealth in circulation the conditions might have been met earlier. However the key point is that the wealth would have been far more evenly spread. I think the key factor in the Great depression was that WWI left so much of the world economy depend on a US that, unlike after WWII wasn't remotely ready for the role. Too much of a zero sum mentality rather than looking to growing the cake overall.

Anyway, as long wealth doesn't get totally focused into too small a group of hands, there is always possible markets for people to generate new ideas for consumption.

Steve

Well, that claim is based on the theory that human consumption capacity is finite. Basically, there is a limit to the amount of food, clothes etc that a human has use for, and when these have been acquired, humans will instead save or attempt to acquire luxury goods.

As mechanization replaced jobs in the US, prices of goods dropped, as supply increased, until the market was saturated, and not all goods were being sold, because those who were rich did not feel the need to buy the equivalent of a hundred mens clothing or food products (they bought luxury goods intead). The poor could not take up the slack, because they needed to save their surplus money. Thus, production decreased and people were laid off. Less products were bought and yet more people laid off. Evil circle :D

Anyway, the great war led to a lot of purchases by the state, which meant that production, and thus employment, could be maintained at a high level, which prevented the depression.

Of course, the increased demand during WW1 meant that mechanization saw a boost so the effect was much less than what it could have been.
 
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