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solipsist comments on Open Thread, May 19 - 25, 2014 - Less Wrong Discussion
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Note: as the article implies, the above viewpoint is not representative of mainstream economic consensus.
What tgb stated above was factually incorrect--WWII did not increase living standards. While most economists credit WWII with kickstarting GDP growth and cutting unemployment, I don't know anyone who would actually argue that living standards rose during WWII.
Krugman doesn't quiiiite come out and say it, but he sure seems to want the reader to infer that living standards rose: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/oh-what-a-lovely-war/ And in that article, he quotes and quote of Rick Perry's book saying that the recovery happened because of WW2 (due to forcing FDR to "unleash private enterprise", oddly).
So maybe no one actually makes that argument, but boy it's common for people (economists and politicians!) to imply it. (Look at the contortions Perry goes through to not have to refute it!) It's always nice to notice the confusion a cached thought should have made all along.
I think you're reading way too much into Krugman's argument. I don't read Krugman as trying to imply that living standards rose during WWII. He doesn't even mention living standards. When economists talk about ending a recession or ending a depression, they mean something technical. Krugman was just talking about increased production and lowered unemployment, etc.
Frankly it seems bizarre to me that anyone would believe that crashing consumer spending + mass shortages = better living standards. It is fair to say that people had a better attitude about their economic deprivation, since it had a patriotic purpose in serving the war effort.
I think it's clear that you know more about what economists mean than I do, but when the typical person hears that a depression is ending, they imagine people being happier than they were before. I'm not really claiming that anyone thinks that crashing consumer spending + mass shortages = better living standards, just that the average Joe in the US hears about the depression ending and not about those negative things.
Anyway, not sure what point I'm trying to make since I think you already know what I'm saying.