    54

    Why Prosperity Will Not Bring Peace

    "Evils which are patiently endured when they seem inevitable

    become intolerable once the idea of escape from them is suggested."

                                                           Alexis de Tocqueville

    There's yet another flaw behind our belief that by eliminating

    hunger and elevating the income of the third world, peace will descend

    upon the earth, and that by eradicating starvation and poverty at home

    we will cause muggings and murders to melt away.  History indicates

    a rising standard of living and a bigger plate of food may be the very

    catalysts that unleash a storm of violence!

    Thanks to rising oil prices, per capita income in Libya went from

    $40 in 1951 to $8,170 in 1979.158  The increase was dizzying.  Libya's

    citizens had once lived pathetic lives as desert nomads, barely finding

    enough grass in the sandy wastes to feed their sheep.  Now they had

    trucks, houses, radios from Sony and hi-tech watches from Seiko.159  By

    1979, in fact, the average Libyan pulled in a higher income than the

    typical Italian or Englishman.

    Did the increase in standard of living create a more peaceful

    society?  No.  Libya's murder rate went up dramatically.160  And under

    the leadership of Muammar al-Qaddafi and his revolutionary dreams

    of glory, Libya began exporting terror worldwide.

    Good times are just as damaging to peace back here in America.

    When the economy goes up, murders do not go down...they rise! The

    most startling fact revealed by a study of the relationship between U.S.

    murder rates and the economy from 1929 to 1949 was that homicides

    actually  plunged dramatically during the Great Depression.161  In

    addition, military historian Robert L. O'Connell contends that since the

    beginning of recorded time, periods of optimism and bursts of new

    weapons development have gone hand in hand.162

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