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Stephen Diamond's avatar

Doctorow also presents the rather silly theory that World War I was caused by elites turning on each other because they ran out of “new worlds to plunder.” The world economy, and investment returns, were as strong just before that war as they’d been a few decades before.

What seems "silly" is the assumption that military policy depends on the immediate economic climate. That capital doesn't look ahead. When Britain fell below Germany in steel production, why wouldn't this have an effect on British militarism like (but much greater than) the effect the rise of China has on engendering U.S. militarism?

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

" Your dad hires economists for intellectual cover, to prove his dynastic fortunes and political influence are the outcome of a complex, self-correcting mechanism with the mystical power to pluck the deserving out of the teeming mass of humanity and elevate them so they can wisely guide us. They have a science-y vocabulary conceived of solely to praise people like your father. Like job creator."

Not false.

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