Zach Newton, Chapter 13, Question 2

The almost all of the issues raised in this chapter affect my life on a near daily basis because they have to do with how our economy is developing. However, what I found most interesting and applicable to my thoughts and beliefs of the economy is Wheelan's section of the chapter titled "War is bad." Often in America it is thought that war is what can stimulate an economy which is probably due to the fact that World War II pulled us out of the Great Depression, but if one looks across the ocean at Africa, war is not so much of an economy booster. According to Wheelan and The Bottom Billion by Oxford Center, "three-quarters of the world's billion poorest people are caught in a civil war or have recently been through one." This statistic appears to show that the only reason war is okay for the American economy is because government spending increases, but in these countries torn by civil war, there isn't really a government to increase spending.