– How is war profitable?
In: Other
Overall it never is. In general both sides spend money to force the other side to do something, so the sum is always a net-loss.
But if you win then it can be profitable, because you can gain territory, access to ressources, political influence, or even just straight up seize valuable stuff of the losing side.
And importantly even a war that is an overall loss can be profitable for certain actors. For example no matter who wins, weapon manufacturers will always make good money from it
Can you precise your question ? Profitable for who ? The government ? The contractors ? The weapon companies ? The servicemen ?
We need a bit more than 4 whole words…
I had a couple of civilian friends sign up as contractors for a year in Iraq because they could make 3 or 4 times as much as staying in the states. One lady was earning close to 6 figures for running (basically opening and locking the doors)a gym… and that was in “close to 20 years ago” dollars.
War is expensive. Bullets are expensive, fuel is expensive, guns are expensive. Tanks are expensive, missiles are expensive, planes are expensive. Drones are cheaper than planes but they’re still expensive. Soldiers are expensive- they need food, and water, and medicine, and barracks, and transports. All of these things require long, sophisticated logistical chains that are expensive.
And in a war, you use a lot of those things. You absolutely burn through them. It’s almost a competition to see who can burn through them fastest. Multi-million missiles blowing up multi-million tanks and aircraft. Wounded dudes requiring airlift and surgery. Suicide drones. Food, water, accommodation for a literal army. Heaven forbid your navy gets involved- even by the standards above, navies are *stupidly* expensive. Sinking a carrier would bankrupt most countries.
And what else are you going to do? Not pay? Then die.
War is *insanely* profitable if you sell these things. Developing them in peacetime can be very profitable, too. A war is the most expensive thing a country can do, but all that money goes somewhere. If you’re the one selling weapons, you’ll make all the money in the world. You might even be able to sell to both sides.
And after the war, you need to rebuild. That can be a great way to further ruin a defeated country for maximum profit. Ship sand to a desert. Privileged lists of contractors. Captive markets.
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