Re: Greed
Lee Daniel Crocker (lcrocker@mercury.colossus.net)
Sun, 8 Feb 1998 13:37:40 -0800 (PST)
> Yes, ancient history can provide lots of such examples, but recent history
> shows that a society that's good only at making war is doomed, consider
> imperial Japan, Nazi Germany or the USSR. I think there are two reasons for
> the change.
>
> 1) When technology is primitive it's difficult to create wealth;
> the best way to get it is to steal it from somebody else who has
> fewer weapons than you do. Technology is no longer so primitive,
> wealth is not conserved it can be created, and there are easier
> ways to get power and money.
>
> 2) The power of offensive weapons has increased enormously while the
> increase in defensive weapons has been much more modest. War is
> no longer profitable.
An interesting factual tidbit to ponder: no two countries that
both have a Macdonald's franchise have ever gone to war against
each other.
--
Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html>
"All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past,
are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified
for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC