Americans Still Support Military Strength and Thus the Armaments Industry

It is said that Americans are weary of war. Maybe, or maybe they do not like Middle East wars. But I see no evidence that Americans are ready to chop the military down to size. As von Mises wrote “Contrary to popular belief, nations do not fight wars in order to make it possible for the arms factories to make money. Arms factories exist because nations fight wars.” In other words, wars are driven by a demand for wars from nations and their governments.

Look at the stock price chart of Lockheed Martin since 2001. LMT is a prime military supplier and representative of the industry. The price goes from $30 to $140. The S & P 500 is up a mere 25% over the same period (like from $30 to $37.50).

When I see LMT significantly underperforming the stock market, then I’ll entertain the idea that Americans may have turned against heavy armaments, a permanently huge military establishment, empire and wars.

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