JeffreyRaze posted...Also, war is an amazing catalyst for invention. Both world wars lead to huge strides in the creation of new things.
That's because war gives government an incentive to be efficient and to innovate. Like red sox mentioned, the efficient government is the one that wins the war. So while normally, there is no motivation for efficiency, the life-or-death scenario that war allows the government to put their massive amount of resources to good use.
Yeah.
And this also highlights why I don't like America's current warfare research very much (at least compared to WW2 stuff). There's no reason to be efficient. You don't need to be efficient to get funding--in fact, the way most military projects get funding is to be very inefficient--they make a manufacturing plant in every state, so that if any senator opposes funding of the project, they will get angry letters from people losing their jobs. Essentially they get funding through lobbying rather than through having an efficient or innovative product. And the US doesn't get punished for this inefficiency, because hey, it's not like there's an opponent who can really threaten America right now.
It's like those people who get way ahead in a game of Starcraft, and decide it would be a good idea to mass the worst unit in the game. They don't end up losing, because they were way ahead to begin with, but the stuff they're building is still crap....
--
Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision