• Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Need citation for this.

    Napoleonic Wars, WW1, WW2. Not even including the US, Russia, China and Japan all had explosive growth after WW2.

    War is a net negative every time.

    If a sudden drop in working age labor causes a death spiral, then Russia would have had a death spiral after WW2. Instead they had a boom and put a man in space before the US.

    The labor involved with raising children is similar but is closer to an investment.

    It’s not an investment because at the end of a child’s growth, you now have a consumer who requires more resources. When an elderly dies, that frees up resources for everyone.

    The Black Plague is a accepted factor for the Renaissance. Labor became more valuable. The death of so many workers allowed the surviving workers wages to increase and they got more independence. It wasn’t a death spiral.

    BUT you do have less total labor.

    Total less labor isn’t a problem when you don’t need more labor.

    If you shrink your labor pool too quickly, you won’t be able to sustain your infrastructure causing a collapse.

    WW2 was a far quicker and far more severe labor pool shrinkage for many countries in the world. There was no collapse.

    • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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      10 months ago

      It’s not an investment because at the end of a child’s growth, you now have a consumer who requires more resources.

      You realize working people produce more resources than they consume, right? If they didn’t, there would be no economy at all.

        • lolcatnip@reddthat.com
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          10 months ago

          Dude, where do you think our food, housing, and consumer goods come from? Your cynicism has overshot so far you’re just denying the existence of the world around you.