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Tuesday Night Slow Blues: Joe Bonamassa, "The Great Flood"

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sagehen9/11/2018 11:11:35 pm PDT

re: #28 Targetpractice

“We beat Germany and Japan at the same time, certainly we can fight Iraq and Afghanistan the same way!” was the cry as we sent soldiers driving around in thin-skinned Humvees and unarmored cargo trucks in the desert.

I read about that time we beat Germany and Japan at the same time.

As I recall, it required drafting every able-bodied man in America, ages 18-34. All of them. Plus volunteers from amongst the too old to draft, too young to draft, women, and not-entirely able-bodied. At the height of the war, a full 10% of our population was in uniform on battlefields.

The government subsidized 24-hour childcare centers, so the moms could work full-time at factories while their husbands were away. Those factories had to sell their goods at cost to the military; profiteering was a felony that sent factory owners and managers to prison. Income taxes ranged from a lowest bracket of 10% to a highest bracket of 92%. The elderly grew vegetables on what used to be lawns and baseball fields, adolescents spent their time scrounging for recyclables, the auto industry made 0 civilian passenger vehicles because they were dedicated to jeeps and tanks and required to sell their entire output to the military. Also, rationing and blackouts.

But sure, we can do that again.