is war bad or good for business ?

Answer 1

War, the expression goes, is a bad business. It's certainly not a good idea if you're a soldier or civilian caught in the middle of one, and it tends to raise havoc with things like domestic spending. But if you are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman or former Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, Admiral (ret.) William Crowe Jr., these are salad days.

For those who make its instruments, war is very good business indeed, and, while the rest of the economy may be tanking, things that go "bang" and kill people are on a roll.

Boeing, for instance, recently doubled its production of JDAM kits ($25,000 a pop), which make dumb bombs smart. Raytheon added a shift to produce its Paveway laser guided bombs ($55,600 apiece), while Alliant Techsystems is churning out 265 million rounds of small arms ammunition ( $92 million).

This is the era of high tech war, which is good news for General Atomics Aeronauticals Systems and its unmanned surveillance and attack craft, the Predator. The going rate is $25 million for four. So, too, for Northrop Grumman, with its $20 million Global Hawk, the Cadillac of robot aircraft. Northrop, which recently swallowed TRW for $7.8 billion, is projected to earn $26 billion in revenues this year.

To keep all these machines talking to their operators, Boeing is pitching its Wideband Gap satellite ($1.3 billion per unit) and Lockheed Martin, Hughes and TRW are pushing their EHF Advanced Wideband satellites for $2.7 billion a shot.

And if you're Admiral Crowe Jr., you are cashing in on a real smart investment. Back in 1998 the state of Michigan sold the vaccine company, Bioport, to a group of private investors. At the time, the company was under fire from the Federal Drug Administration for poor quality control of its smallpox vaccine. Crowe Jr. and company brought the place for a song and, shortly thereafter, landed a $60 million contract from the Department of Defense.

You don't have to kill people to make money. Take Kellogg Brown & Root, owned by Vice-President Dick Cheney's old company, Halliburton. The construction company has been building bases since World War II and had a virtual lock on military construction during the Vietnam War. It made $2.5 billion from the DOD during the '90s and is presently building bases in Afghanistan (the costs are classified).

Other bases are being constructed in Yemen, Pakistan, Turkey, Georgia, Uzbekistan, Kyregyszstan, India and the Philippines. No need to go to uncomfortable places to make money from all this, however. The Homeland Security budget is $37.7 billion, and the military industrial types are already thundering toward the trough.

Boeing wants to fit commercial airplanes with its missile-tracking device, the same one that keeps missing its targets in the Administration's billion- dollar missile defense boondoggle.

Lockheed Martin wants to sell its military simulators to train emergency fire and medical teams.

General Dynamics is pushing armored vehicles to local police (a bargain at $200,000 plus) and also wants the military to use its Gulfstream Executive jets as early warning radar systems. Smart move. With the economy a disaster, and the Iraq War likely to worsen things, Executive jets are a slow sell these days. Northrop Grumman, builder of the $2 billion B-2 Stealth Bomber, and co-contractor with Lockheed Martin on the $400 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, is pushing its telecommunication systems as a way to fight bioterrorism.

All of this, of course, is done in the spirit of patriotism. "The attacks on Sept. 11 are a very personal things for us," says Boeing Vice-President John Stammreich. He did not, on the other hand, offer any of his company's whiz-bangs at cost.

If one adds up all the supplementary costs of war beyond the $355.5 billion military budget--Homeland Security, $30 billion in supplementary funds, $25.5 billion for foreign military assistance, $16 billion for nuclear weapons, etc--the U.S. spends in excess of $465 billion each year, or $1.2 billion a day.

A month of military spending would wipe out California's catastrophic budget deficit. Instead, Californians are going to cough up $10.1 billion in income taxes just to pay for the upcoming $100 billion plus Gulf War. U.S. military spending not only dwarfs the combined military budgets of the "Evil Axis" ($11.4 billion), all potential enemies ($116.4 billion), but every single nation in the world, from Russia to Luxembourg ($423 billion). War is a bad business? Not for everyone.

Answer 2

depend on what business ur in.. and also depend on who is winning.. but majority of the business suffer during wartime. Only a handful business that has got to do with selling weapons, food and water as well as oil would benefit from this. And of course after a war, those who are involved with reconstruction would benefit from it too.. but apart from that.. all business would suffer.. some would go bankrupt.

Uncertainty in politics are always bad for business, and during wartime, most trading stops, stock market as well as many shops closes. Destruction of buildings and factories cost lots of money to a company. So is war good for business... mostly not.. unless if ur into arms dealing.

Answer 3

War is extremely good for business. Just before WW2, the US was barely climbing out of a major depression. Right after WW2, the 1950s were some of the most wonderful economic boomtimes in US history. Is it coincidence that just when the US was about to enter another serious recession and/or depression that we started a war in Afghanistan and Iraq? Hmmmm......

Answer 4

Truely the question here is why the HELL are u married? For one if the girl is retarded as you stated should u even be considering being with her forget about the fact that u are her brother-in-law, u are married. Now with ur cockyness about never getting caught, keep thinking that one day u will lose ur shirt and all lets not forget about if ur still in the military when caught they LOVE making examples of cheaters. So do urself a favor and have some respect for your wife who I hope at one time u loved and respected give her a divorce and let her find a man to love her and be faithful to her. You sound like you would much rather live like a bachlor anyway. Good luck in ur belt notches and hope ur wife doesnt get hurt too bad from ur actions. True love = true devotion I dont see that in ur question. Take care try to keep it in ur pants

Answer 5

Good, very good if you are Halliburton or similar contractor.
However, the day may come when The People vote a halt to the tremendous waste of energy, time, money and lives war brings.
Let's not hold our breath until that happens, though.

Answer 6

What business? Gun making? good. The business of avoiding such an increasing debt as to hurl the country into a depression in the near future? bad.

Answer 7

I do not think that it shouold lbe classified, as either,

war, is the for one thing, the absence of stability, wisdom, love, and good energy,

Obviously, someone, will gain financially, as a side advantage offered, but to say Good for business, is a sad
statement to support the wealth of man, by death of mankind,,

Answer 8

Good for the Ammunition Industry. See, the loss of Property in Lebanon. Then, it is good for builders and associated industries, like cement, iron etc.

But, think what would you feel if you were in their shoes, I mean in the shoes of those who have lost every thing they had, due to the madness of some people.

And, don't forget to think of those who lost their lives. You can build the roads, bridges, your industry. But, can you bring back those bombarded by the bombs, rockets.

Answer 9

It depends, is your business the one being bombed (bad for business) or is it the business building the bombs (good for business).

Answer 10

Those who sell the arms, it is good. Those who pay for all other items suffer, irrespective of whether in the war zone or not.
VR

Answer 11

Good only for the Arms manufacturer/dealer, brokers, maniacs,
terrorists, dictators, Osama & Bush.

Bad for everybody at the receiving end of the bullets.