You mean in the same way that Penn Jillette said that the best way to become an atheist is to actually read the Bible?
Yes... and the only reason the U.S. economy boomed after the war is because we were the only country left with a manufacturing capability that was not bombed to shreds.
Right. (Also, inflation.) So high debt incurred by war does not necessarily mean you lose your empire. But at the time no one could know the high US debt load would be relieved.
The British faced two wars where the high debt incurred in the war led to a financial crisis that impacted their capability to support their empire. The first was the Napoleonic Wars - the British managed to weather this storm and keep their empire. The second was WW2 - after which the British government was so broke they could no longer support colonies. Of course there are a number of other factors in play including that the mercantile trade of the 1820s supported tea, opium, spices, sugar, etc. which meant the British colonies generated money, and the trade of the 1950s needed raw materials for modern manufacturing such as oil, metals, and rubber which the notable British colonies generally lacked.
The US had the benefit of fighting the war on other people's turf and they did not have to worry about rebuilding cities. In addition, the debt was made up of war bonds that were most held by US citizens so the money that was used to repay the debt was directly paid to Americans and funneled into the US economy. People act like interest paid on debt is a total net loss to the government. As long as the interest is earned by the citizens of the country, its really not. Now if you are selling the debt the Chinese, thats a different story.
yes... I was.. I gave it a thumbs up. I have not harped on the Federal debt and borrowing since, I the I spent analyzing the govt shutdown and debt ceiling arguments and realized the Fed gives the orders for money printing not the govt. When you realize that we have had 700 percent inflation the last 50 years while there was massive demand for the dollar (it should have gone up in value) you realize that massive inflation in the fact of strong demand, could have been caused by govt borrowing (which really should not cause general inflation... that is why a sovereign borrows instead of printing) ... the massive inflation has been caused by the Federal Reserve spreading trillions and trillions of dollars all over the world. Can you imagine the influence and the assets the private owners of the federal reserve must have purchased with those trillions. So while I prefer no debt. its the progressive taxation and unlimited printing of the Federal Reserve which was the cancer on our standard of living. In our economy focusing on Govt debt or Govt spending is like worrying about the pimple on top of basal cell carcinoma. Until we control of the cancer of unlimited private money creation ... worrying about the debt just plays into the the crony directed Kabuki.
whatever, you could almost say the 1930's were a time when nobody wanted to borrow or lend. Then the only thing that changed in 1940 (besides Pearl Harbor and WWII) was people decided we need to borrow borrow borrow and spend spend spend. Other than that there was nothing fundamentally different from 1930 to 1940.
1950: The average family income: $3,300 The average car cost: $1,510 The median home price: $7,354 2014: (Better quality car and much improved building in 2014) The average family income: $51,017 The average car cost: $31,252 The median home price: $188,900