Mangudai
Posts: 360
Joined: 3/12/2004 From: The Middle West Status: offline
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quote:
The US came out of the second world war much ramped up economically having had it's industry greatly sped up in the effort. You think so? I think the US economy was comparitively great at the end of the war because Europe, Japan, China, etc were devestated. In terms of absolute wealth the US would probably have been wealthier if WW2 never happened. During the war people had jobs and what appeared to be good wages, but you couldn't buy anything because there were shortages and rations. Things like homes, automobiles, major appliances, etc. were hardly built at all during the war. Most of the investment that would have gone to civilian industry went to the war effort. As far as technology is concerned, the war certainly sped up the development of militarily useful technology like nuclear reactions, jet airplanes, rockets, radar, and so on. But, I don't think the '40s saw faster technological development overall than many peacetime decades. The 1900's, 20's, and 90's were faster IMHO. I might have mentioned the 60's too, but who can say if the space race would have happened if not for WW2?
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