Add geography to Great Depression rebound debate

Regarding the debate on capitalism vs. socialism getting the U.S. out of the Great Depression: It was geography.

After the Greatest Generation defeated the Axis powers, Asia and Europe were basically piles of rubble. Their Infrastructure had been blown up. Roads, railroad tracks, manufacturing plants and the manpower to run them were devastated.

The U.S. was left relatively intact because the vast Pacific and Atlantic oceans kept the war over there, buffering America from the destruction.

After the war, Asia and Europe needed everything, and once private industry was turned loose, we were the only ones to provide for them, because all of our competition had been blown up.

So was it a capitalist approach or a socialist approach that brought the money in that got us out of the Great Depression? It was geography that created that windfall.

This story was originally published May 21, 2016 at 4:16 PM with the headline "Add geography to Great Depression rebound debate."