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Comment by gmarx | Hacker News Reader

Countries cannot profit by war perhaps but that won;t prevent wars. I don't think most wars are entered as the result of a cold economic calculation. They are caused by ancient programs written into our DNA before humans even evolved. So for the time being war is disincentivized by economics but I am confident we will eventually find reasons for a big war anyway

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> I don't think most wars are entered as the result of a cold economic calculation. They are caused by ancient programs written into our DNA before humans even evolved.

There are credible arguments that the Second Red Scare (which started after WWII) was the result of ruling classes in capitalist countries becoming afraid that they would be the victims of a proletariat revolution. A revolution like Cuba's would have been their worst nightmare.

That's perhaps not a cold economic calculation, but almost certainly an economic one.

There are also many Middle Eastern conflicts that the US is only involved in because we're afraid of losing access to oil.

are we though? Our alliance with Saudi Arabia was a calculation of that nature back around WWII. Recently though did the revolution in Iran cause a problem for our oil supplies? Is there a scenario in which a middle east war or lack of such war affects our access to oil?

The "war for oil" thing is looking at the wrong end of the telescope. The problem in the middle east is oil gives the rulers of these countries a way to purchase security organizations and strong militaries they could never afford based on normal economies. It's not just the middle east, either - it's also places like Nigeria and Venezuela.

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