Inflation: Artificial expansion of the money supply
If you look at every war fought from the beginning of recorded history you will find that it calls for a vast rearranging of resources by both the aggressor and the defender. In fact one of the reasons aggressors have initiated war is to try to seize resources.
In peaceful and cooperative periods of history resources are directed towards the means chosen at that time for the purposes of the continuation and expansion of peace and cooperation. But history is full of disruptions of this state of affairs as the ego-driven gain enough power to try to impose their will on others. War has been the aggressor's tool, used to confiscate wealth to gain more power.
But the aggressor has to rearrange its resources to increase its chance of victory especially since the defender will rearrange its resources to counter the attack. This problem would pose as a natural deterrent to war because the people will object to the changes in lifestyle and the sacrifices of personal wealth that would be required.
If, however, the aggressor could counterfeit the money to pay for its military expansion then it could rearrange resources in a way that empowers warmongering. And indeed that is exactly the characteristic of the times and the places where inflation is practiced. For example:
- The U.S. launched 201 out of the 248 armed conflicts since the end of WWII:
“Since the end of World War II, there have been 248 armed conflicts in 153 locations around the world. The United States launched 201 overseas military operations between the end of World War II and 2001, and since then, others, including Afghanistan and Iraq ….”
- U.S. military spending dwarfs all other countries:
“The United States is responsible for 41% of the world’s total military spending. The next largest in spending are China, accounting for 8.2%; Russia, 4.1%; and the United Kingdom and France, both 3.6%. . . . If all military . . . costs are included, annual [US] spending amounts to $1 trillion . . . . According to the DOD fiscal year 2012 base structure report, ‘The DOD manages global property of more than 555,000 facilities at more than 5,000 sites, covering more than 28 million acres.’ The United States maintains 700 to 1000 military bases or sites in more than 100 countries. . . .”June 2014 issue of the American Journal of Public Health
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