Financial cost of WW2 v Covid- 19

[Eagleye]

Has anyone made a financial comparison between the cost of WW2 against the cost of the reaction to this crisis?

I think WW2 had cost the UK about £120B but not sure what that is scaled to 2020 pricing and it's probably more interesting to try to estimate the world financial cost.

As many have said, good things may come out of this, I'm not sure what good came out of WW2 so maybe we will end up getting value out of this.

I appreciate I may be shot down for that last statement but I'm just trying to put a different light on things.

It's probably like trying to compare the cost of a car to the colour yellow but maybe comparisons can be made?

I wonder what the relative financial costs will end up being?

[MaxNg]

The good thing that came out of World War 2 was the defeat of an absolutely vile regime.

However, the cost wasn't fully met until we had paid off Lend-lease. Although I don't know the answer, I think Covid-19 will be less costly than that of the War, both in lives lost and money spent.

[BoRED S2upid]

Even world wide this will be minuscule compared to WW2. How many lives were lost over such a huge timeframe one would hope that a vaccine is developed before this goes into a second and third year. Whole cities had to be rebuilt after WW2 all over the world, there really is no comparison.

[Evanivitch]

Eagleye said:

I think WW2 had cost the UK about £120B but not sure what that is scaled to 2020 pricing and it's probably more interesting to try to estimate the world financial cost.

£120Bn in 1945 is £5,218Bn in 2019.

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/in...

[Eagleye]

MaxNg said:

The good thing that came out of World War 2 was the defeat of an absolutely vile regime.

Good point - I forgot about that!

[P-Jay]

I think it'll be a drop in the ocean in comparison.

It'll no doubt be a BIG number, but what are we doing? Building a few field hospitals, paying 80% of lots of peoples salaries and no doubt bailing out some big firms for 3/4 months.

WW2 lasted 6 years, millions died and most of the production of the world was turned over the make weapons etc.

[Steamer]

Environment cost too?

I don't know how you could possibly quantify the impact on the environment of WW2 - in terms of pollution / industrial out put required / resources required and used.

Covid 19's impact? - I'll leave that up to someone that knows about these things (but I am buying that stupid car I always promised myself as soon as I can get down the garage again!)

[Welshbeef]

Steamer said:

Environment cost too?

I don't know how you could possibly quantify the impact on the environment of WW2 - in terms of pollution / industrial out put required / resources required and used.

Covid 19's impact? - I'll leave that up to someone that knows about these things (but I am buying that stupid car I always promised myself as soon as I can get down the garage again!)

So far environmental impact is extremely good.
NOX reductions around cities
Vastly fewer car and train and bus trips.
Even rare birds have now started nesting on the beaches.
Sightings of hedgehogs increasing.

[Saweep]

Nobody has mentioned the economic cost.

I think that will be trillions in lost output.

[98elise]

BoRED S2upid said:

Even world wide this will be minuscule compared to WW2. How many lives were lost over such a huge timeframe one would hope that a vaccine is developed before this goes into a second and third year. Whole cities had to be rebuilt after WW2 all over the world, there really is no comparison.

Agreed. All manufacturing being directed at making stuff to blow up. All efforts focused at killing people and destroying the assets and infrastructure of the other side. So many lives lost.

This period of time will hurt, but is nothing compared to 4 years of war.

[227bhp]

Welshbeef said:

So far environmental impact is extremely good.
NOX reductions around cities
Vastly fewer car and train and bus trips.
Even rare birds have now started nesting on the beaches.
Sightings of hedgehogs increasing.

But what about answering the question?

Worse than that, you forgot the Welsh goats!

[55palfers]

Eagleye said:

I'm not sure what good came out of WW2

Really?

[Ian Geary]

I recall that the Chancellor that paid the last lend lease sum to the states was Ed Milliband.

Puts the cost into perspective.

Cv-19 will have a big impact, but not a global war scale in my opinion.

[Welshbeef]

This cost we could choose to pay off over 100 years or more if we wanted

[RDMcG]

Not close I would say. Approximately 70 million people died, whole infrastructures were obliterated, countries were massively damaged.

I do think that a major event such as this tends to realign world power though. I would not be surprised to see China come out of this in better shape than the US and the US dollar decline as the safe haven reserve currency.

[glazbagun]

Saweep said:

Nobody has mentioned the economic cost.

I think that will be trillions in lost output.

Worse than having having your cities flattened by the nazi's, your intellectuals shot, then a repeat by the soviets and being atom bombed from above whilst losing whole aircraft carriers and battleships at sea and an uncountable number merchant vessels brimmed full of product at sea?

WWII wins by miles IMO

Most of the output of the war was geared towards the destruction of the labour and infrastructure of rival nations. It's why in 1984 they were always at war- building massive battleships to go off, get sunk and require more weapons was just an infinite labour sink to occupy the masses in non-productive output. Every bomb and bullet was a net waste of labour.

Likewise WWI- the most advanced economies and civilizations on earth poured their collective labour and intellect into destroying each others economy. They spent all their money on it, all their manpower on it, at the cost of their colonies and financial security.

Closing an economy for a year whilst saving citizens and developing medical procedures can't be a patch on the cost of actively destroying each other for five years.

It should also be noted that the world economy is larger now than ever, too. So cost in absolute and relative terms will be different.

Quick Google says world GDP was $84,929 Billion in 2018 and I found an estimate of between $5,763 Billion and $8,140 Billion for 1938 (from this page, changed into 2018 dollars. No source mentioned.)

[Wacky Racer]

98elise said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Even world wide this will be minuscule compared to WW2. How many lives were lost over such a huge timeframe one would hope that a vaccine is developed before this goes into a second and third year. Whole cities had to be rebuilt after WW2 all over the world, there really is no comparison.

Agreed. All manufacturing being directed at making stuff to blow up. All efforts focused at killing people and destroying the assets and infrastructure of the other side. So many lives lost.

This period of time will hurt, but is nothing compared to 4 years of war.

6

September 1939 - August 1945

[98elise]

Wacky Racer said:

98elise said:

BoRED S2upid said:

Even world wide this will be minuscule compared to WW2. How many lives were lost over such a huge timeframe one would hope that a vaccine is developed before this goes into a second and third year. Whole cities had to be rebuilt after WW2 all over the world, there really is no comparison.

Agreed. All manufacturing being directed at making stuff to blow up. All efforts focused at killing people and destroying the assets and infrastructure of the other side. So many lives lost.

This period of time will hurt, but is nothing compared to 4 years of war.

6

September 1939 - August 1945

Apologies, thinking of the wrong WW!

[SCEtoAUX]

Imagine if they'd had social media in WWII.

[Shakermaker]

SCEtoAUX said:

Imagine if they'd had social media in WWII.

We'd have regular videos of things like "give your bomb shelter the wow factor!" and designer cases for our gas masks.