The price of restoring democracy

#266

My Dear Friend of Democracy,

Where people live or have lived, we can learn something about democracy.

For example, about the price of restoring democracy. For example, in Épinal, France, a town of 30,000 inhabitants in the Vosges, where I am on holiday for a few days.

Epinal has a large American military cemetery. 5,255 servicemen and women who died in World War II are buried there. That is a large number, and yet only a small part of the total number of US soldiers killed in World War II, namely 400,000.

The many deaths are a reminder to us that we should not start defending democracy too late, namely not only when the dictators of this world, armed to the teeth, bomb their dictatorship across the globe.

Adolf Hitler was able to wage war successfully for a long time because other states hesitated to arm themselves heavily and join forces against the Nazi dictatorship. When they finally did so, the death toll was immeasurably high.

And not just the death toll.

During World War II, the USA invested more than a third of its total economic output (BIP) in equipping the army for several years in a row. By comparison, in Germany, it is currently 2 per cent, and in Russia, it is currently between 7 and 8 per cent.

By the way, the USA financed its war largely with debt: after WW II, the US debt level had risen to 105 per cent of economic output (from just over 40 per cent in 1941),

✊ There are many good reasons to campaign for democracy, including in other countries. The price of failing is high. The small town of Epinal, with its large cemetery, is a warning example of a very high price.

See you in Democracy,

Johannes

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📸 Photo by Warrick Page/ABMC, 4 Novembre 2016