War Makes Us Poor

[bwv]

HiHi

Interesting article, but from a Global point of view I feel he has left out 1 essential economic point, ie Population density to National recourses/ability to provide.

Sure, in antiquity it was simply competition among groups for scarce resources and war could pay for the winner, however wealth in the aggregate was always destroyed

It could perhaps be suggested that in the past War has to a great extent acted as a mechanism to Cull the younger male breeding population and in abstract terms this could be seen as the real reason for War (ie Mankind has no natural predators), think along the lines of the breeding populations lost in WWI & WWII and set that against the expediential Worldwide rise in population since c1832 (1 Billion), could the nations of the World and particularly Europe (including Russia here) economically have supported via Jobs, food production etc. etc. those people lost in the Wars?

Europe left the Malthusian trap in the 18th century with Industrialization (the 1700s mark the first time in history where sustained population growth and increases in per capita income occured simultaneously) I do not think in the absence of WW1 and WW2 there would have been any adverse consequences. Jobs are not a fixed resource and food production has increased in excess of population growth due to technology.

I think it fair to suggest that prior to the 20th century both war and migration helped keep a rough balance re Population density/Economic advancement, unfortunately our planet does have finite boundaries and therefore once the point of sustainable land/resources per head of population is passed (arguably between 1932 [2 Billion] & 1965ish [3 Billion]) then we have very real problems.

So in reference to the articles hypothesis maybe it could be suggested (and this is not suggested with any nod whatsoever at Ethics, Morality etc.) that what is really needed is more Old fashioned Wars were the young breeding populations are Culled in greater numbers than is the case in the 21st century; there’s a Planet dyeing out there, the last thing it/we need is more people.

All the Best
Peter

The earth can support current and projected populations and with development population growth declines. Most of the developed world is reproducing below its replacement rate and birthrates in the developing world are coming down. I think it is simply a matter of changing societal and family values from a world where half or more of your children would not live until adulthood to the current where fortunately childhood death is a rare thing. The combination of pre-modern birthrates with modern medicine and agriculture produced a one-time population explosion that is now moderating itself as societies adjust