War is a Racket


I heard about this pamphlet on an episode of Joe Rogan, and since it was short and a dollar for Kindle I grabbed it and consumed it while waiting for one of my elderly charges to have his eyes checked.

The full text is available online and worth the thirty minutes or less it will take you to read it. It is mostly a load of production and profit stats from American companies involved in the first World War. My biggest takeaway was the reinforcement of something I have known forever: war makes money, and therefore such profits must motivate anyone who stands to get a slice of that pie to foment and maintain war. And these are not just arms companies. Any outfit that produces anything at any level from primary down to tertiary which can be used in a war effort would have this burning in the back of their mind.

I also had a dark thought after reading this: if war is largely inevitable and ongoing, it makes sense to gear investment around companies that profit from it. While this is morally objectional, it is objectively rational. Just don’t tell anyone where those fat dividends are coming from.


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