War brings GDP but what could you have done instead? It's another layer of violence and coercion. If I don't do a war I don't know if you'll save or spend or where. If I do a war I can force spending and funnel it into a narrower range of products, easier to line my pockets by positioning myself well before declaring the war.
quotingA kid breaks a window. the glazier gets paid. the keynesian says great, that's spending, that's growth
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nobody asks what the shopkeeper would have bought with that money instead. a suit. a new oven. the window is visible. the suit that never got made is not
the economy didn't grow. it got a window back and lost a suit. you can count the window in gdp. you can't count the suit anywhere. that's the whole trick