Can the Free Market Wage War? - David Gordon - Mises Institute

Can the Free Market Wage War? - David Gordon - Mises Institute: "Tariffs, and similar measures designed to strengthen the nation, 'should not be considered as measures of production policy.' They aid some citizens at the expense of others; they do not help the economy as a whole."

"The first step which led from the soldiers' war back to total war was the introduction of compulsory military service. … The war was no longer to be only a matter of mercenaries; it was to include everyone who had the necessary physical ability. … But when it is realized that a part of the able-bodied must be used on the industrial front … then there is no reason to differentiate in compulsory service between the able-bodied and the physically unfit. Compulsory military service thus leads to compulsory labor service of all citizens who are able to work, male and female."

"On the basis of such [anticapitalist] reasoning the [Léon] Blum government nationalized the French armament industry. When the war broke out and it became imperative to place the productive power of all French plants into the service of the rearmament effort, the French authorities considered it more important to block war profits than to win the war."