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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 30, 2026

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Military investment can also be a boon to the mass populace. My understanding of WW2 spending is that it helped to bid up wages, by creating an enormous demand for labor, while simultaneously denying growth potential to the capitalist class by forcing them to forego commercial developments in favor of facilitating the war effort. The result was the most egalitarian period in American history following the war, where the gulf between the mass populace and the capitalist class had been reduced to almost nothing. Ensuing this was an explosion in the creative arts, high taxes on the rich (a symbol of their reduced power), and a period of social calm, arguably broken in part once inequality began creeping upwards again.

Although, Trump's budgeting probably will not accomplish this, and the conditions necessary for the post-war boon were probably unique to that time in history. His war in Iran is expected to cost trillions of dollars in the long-run, though, so perhaps we can infer that is the true reason for the spending and the one objective it will accomplish, counterbalancing an enforced burden.

There was a fear that the massive number of returning GIs would flood the labor market and restart the depression. This was deftly avoided by sending them off to college.