Given the incredible militarization that has occurred in the US since WWII, this argument has become a “Hobson’s Choice”. Over the years this expression has become a shorthand way of asking if we should allocate more of the government’s spending on military purchases or put that money towards all the various domestic priorities. Hence, the dichotomy of using nitrates for wartime gunpowder (the ‘guns’ in this case) or for fertilizers to create more food (the ‘butter’). As originally articulated, it was about the choice between using nitrates for gun powder or the same nitrates for fertilizer. In fact, this saying originated decades earlier, with the passage of the National Defense Act of 1916 as the US ramped up to enter World War I. BRUTOCO Click here for downloadable pdfĪ macroeconomic argument circulating during World War II stated that the nation couldn’t afford both “guns and butter”, pitting the costs of waging war against luxuries like silk stockings and abundant food choices like creamy milk fat.
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