Does the 1st world bomb the 3rd world in order to extend their social programs, or does the 1st world bomb the 3rd world in spite of the fact that their increased military spending could go towards social programs instead? I see both narratives on here quite often and both seem incomplete and burdened by assumptions. Make sure to call me stupid and not answer my question.
The first world bombs the third world to extract their mineral wealth, oil, and labor, and turn that into finance schemes.
They do the social programs so we don't stop them
It's really simple comrade.
>High profits
>High living standards
>Equitable international relations
Pick two. The first world subjugated the third world to extract superprofits, and these allow them to (temporarily) support concessions to workers without sacrificing their immense wealth and power. It's not that imperialism is necessary to enjoy high living standards, but it's necessary to enjoy high living standards *and* high profits. However due to the fact that the need of capitalist economies for growth always outstrips their capacity for it, this arrangement can only ever be temporary.
>>2686887>It's not that imperialism is necessary to enjoy high living standards, but it's necessary to enjoy high living standards *and* high profitsok but then why do anons act like the concessions are the point rather than the profits. the concessions are just something porky uses to buy time.
>>2686887yeah, what this uygha is saying, thread solved
>>2686907many third worldists are retarded and just want to see white people suffer
I mean in America at least there's near constant austerity it feels like. To be frank I've talked with teachers and other public sector workers and the impression they give me is that they're continually underfunded. I don't see that much in regards to the military, but in that case its a poor allocation of funds. Like VA clinics being absolute misers while also refusing to upgrade their systems to the point one office allegedly had their second floor collapse because of all the filing cabinets and paperwork they had stored up. At the same time I've heard vets tell me that the army will spend some absurd amount of funds on benches or useless doo-dads because if they don't spend all their allocated funds they'll receive less funding
However Imperialism in the 1st world has some "practical" or "beneficial" element to the common citizenry to the extent that it secures resources and the production of cheap commodities. The irony of the neoliberal turn being that things like televisions became extremely cheap but necessities like housing skyrocketed in cost. This creates the bizarre, contradictory image of a homeless man with numerous untreated diseases still having access to a cellphone, something that would've been some "huge luxury" in years past.
Like there was an old joke from Berlin supposedly. Two kids live in apartments on opposite ends of the Berlin wall. Kid from West Germany makes fun of the kid from East Germany by saying "In the West, we have bananas". Kid from East Germany says, "We don't need bananas, we have Socialism!" Kid from West Germany says they'll get Socialism eventually, then the East German kid laughs and says "Ha! Then you wont have bananas either!"
Well you can buy some Bananas for 19 cents at Trader Joe's, and I think that kind of thing, y'know cheap fruits and veggies available any day of the year, it's only possible because imperialists have arbitrarily kept the living standards of those nations down and in the case of central America literally couped governments to keep the cheap bananas coming. So yeah, some previously "luxury" commodities became cheaper thanks to Imperialism, but at the same time the actual necessities of life have become more precarious.
>>2686907>ok but then why do anons act like the concessions are the point rather than the profitsBecause they're stupid and/or glowies. Third worldism is the result of embittered Western leftists getting frustrated with the lack of progress and going into "billions must die" mode, and is also probably pushed by the feds to further weaken the socialist movement in the West. There's a reason why it doesn't really exist in the third world.