The value of Faith

[Mikal]

In the World War [World War I] a mere handful garnered the profits of the conflict. At least 21,000 new millionaires and billionaires were made in the United States during the World War.

General Smedley Butler..

No Prof...I think the war in Iraq is about making and creating Disaster Capitalism...

I particularly noticed his words that "HIS MENTAL FACULTIES WERE IN SUSPENDED ANIMATION" for over 33 years....

Mikal

[Profpat]

Hi Mikal;

Maybe both. we control their oil and make them pay us to reconstruct their country after we destroyed it. That's even better than the British making the Chinese pay for the opium wars. Yes indeed we learned a lot from those Brits. Remember after WWII the mideast oil fields were given to England and America, while Russia got Eastern Europe. Too bad the Eastern Europeans and Arabs had nothing to say about it.

That is why the main force in the Iraq war was America and Britain. We were given the Iraq fields and Britain was given the Iranian oil fields. Now if only pussy England would do what they are suppose to do in Iran ( sarcasm )

Best,

Pat

[Mikal]

Prof...we destroy their countries infrastructure and yes make them pay for that...however with massive profits rolling around surely the culprits could have been so kind to clean up their mess....

WHO MAKES THE PROFITS?

The World War cost the United States some $52 billion. That means $400 [over $4,000 in today's dollars] to every American man, woman, and child. The normal yearly profits of a business concern in the U.S. are 6 to 12%. But war-time profits, that is another matter – 60, 100, 300, and even 1,800% – the sky is the limit. Uncle Sam has the money. Let's get it. Of course, it isn't put that crudely in war time. It is dressed into speeches about patriotism, love of country, and "we must all put our shoulders to the wheel," but the profits jump, leap, and skyrocket – and are safely pocketed.

Take our friends the du Ponts, the powder people. The average pre-war earnings of the du Ponts for the period 1910 to 1914 were $6 million a year. Now let's look at their average yearly profit during the war years, 1914 to 1918. $58 million a year profit we find! Nearly ten times that of normal times, and the profits of normal times were pretty good. An increase in profits of more than 950%.

Take one of our steel companies. Their 1910-1914 yearly earnings averaged $6 million. Then came the war. And, like loyal citizens, Bethlehem Steel promptly turned to munitions making. Did their profits jump? Well, their 1914-1918 average was $49 million a year! Or, let's take United States Steel. The normal earnings during the five-year period prior to the war were $105 million a year. Then along came the war and up went the profits. The average yearly profit for the period 1914-1918 was $240 million. Not bad.

They sold your Uncle Sam 20 million mosquito nets for the use of the soldiers overseas. Well, not one of these mosquito nets ever got to France! There were pretty good profits in mosquito netting, even if there were no mosquitoes in France. When the war was over some 4 million sets of equipment – knapsacks and the things that go to fill them – crammed warehouses on this side. Now they are being scrapped because the regulations have changed the contents. But the manufacturers collected their wartime profits on them.

If anyone had the cream of the profits it was the bankers. Being partnerships rather than incorporated organizations, they do not have to report to stockholders. Their profits were as secret as they were immense. How the bankers made their millions and their billions I do not know, because those little secrets never become public – even before a Senate investigatory body. It has been estimated that the war cost your Uncle Sam $52 billion [X 10 or more for inflation]. Of this sum, $39 billion was expended in the actual war itself. This expenditure yielded $16 billion in profits. That is how the 21,000 billionaires and millionaires got that way. This $16 billion profits is not to be sneezed at. It is quite a tidy sum. And it went to a very few.

General Smedley Butler


Mikal

[Profpat]

Off with the banker's heads.

[Mikal]

Well I love your dry humour Prof...chuckles...have had to adapt to that mode myself in the face of the serious nature of my research....I have simply learned how to live as a multi-dimensional woman....lol....


Mikal