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We didn’t start from scratch in either world war. We had our industrial infrastructure in place.

Winston Churchill once said “The history of man is war.” The Founding Fathers knew that they would always have to be on a war footing ever since the exposure of our greatest weakness—having to rely on France, who could have turned on us just as quickly as they aided us. Alexander Hamilton didn’t write “Report on Manufactures” for no reason.

Now we are back to worse than before the War of Independence, and in a time where new big powers like China and Russia are rapidly putting themselves back on a war footing and Europe is seeking to unify all their disparate militaries into a single force. Not wise to be in such a position while the rest of the world is so feverishly making war preparations.

“We didn’t start from scratch in either world war. We had our industrial infrastructure in place.”

Um, we have a much a bigger industrial infrastructure in place now. Or have you been duped by reports of outsourcing, the vanishing blue collar class, “the death of the middle class,” etc.? Is it really possible to believe we can build less, that our technology is any less advanced, that our capital has somehow shrunk since nearly a century ago. However bad was the recent recession and however anemic is the so-called recovery the WWII buildup took place amidst the freaking Great Depression! Do you honestly think we’d produce less now?

Yes, it’s true that China, for instance, employs more people in manufacturing and that less of our consumer products than before are made overseas. But if you knew anything about how economies expand, you’d know proper capital formation means more efficiency and less workers. If you knew anything about comparative advantage you’d know it’s in our interest to let other nations do what they do, even if they do it worse than we do, and focus on other, higher things.

The truth remains: the U.S. is more productive than it’s ever been. You may not notice if all you pay attention to is abandoned factories with tumbleweeds in the parking lots on the nightly news. But we make stuff.