Financing a War
The horrors of war are well known in terms of loss of life, freedoms, economic prosperity, and much more. What is not often discussed is that war also makes a relatively small handful of people very, very wealthy.
Armed conflict requires billions of dollars of weapons, transportation, training, food, and an endless flow of ammunition and other supplies. The people who produce those things experience a sudden increase in their market, often at inflated prices, followed by profits beyond comprehension. War can be very profitable.
The time of COVID-19 qualifies as a war in every way: a conflict with a clearly defined enemy, billions of potential victims, and a world-wide resistance against destruction. And many people profited handsomely from their production of needed goods and services during that time.
Most profits occurred because of legitimate market forces, but many were inflated by political influence, monopolies, and the usual accompaniments of war.
The Subtle War Claiming the Happiness of Children
What is rarely recognized is that a more subtle war has been raging in recent decades, claiming the happiness of our children while we fail to recognize it, though it occurs right under our noses.
Mostly through simple neglect, quite unintentionally, we have generally failed to love our children in the unconditional way they require. They have responded by diminishing their pain in a wide variety of ways, including their phones, social media, games, porn, drugs, and more.
In recent years, Apple—the maker of phones and quite an array of other electronic devices and software—has become the most valuable company in the world, larger than Wal-Mart, Amazon, or any oil producer. That’s sobering. Facebook is in the Top Ten of those largest companies, and recently a single video game producer was valued publicly at $29 billion.
Parents are Financing the War that is Harming Children
Where do children get the computers, phones, and resources to use these means of pain relief, and to finance the endless production of more “medication” by these enormous corporations? From US, the parents, who are, effectively, funding the war machine that is harming our children.
And who generally fails to monitor the use of these instruments? US again.
We are in a war, and I’m not being the least bit alarmist. Our children are suffering and dying emotionally, and we scarcely demonstrate concern unless they inconvenience us personally.
Am I saying that Apple, Facebook, and video game designers are bad? Not even close. I’m saying that they—and a great many other companies—create products capable of great destruction, and we as parents have the responsibility of determining whether they’re used for good or ill.
Don’t be afraid. That doesn’t help. Be aware, informed, and loving, and your children will not just survive but thrive.
