Question Home

Position:Home>History> What were the social, and economic consequences of the arms race between the USS


Question: What were the social, and economic consequences of the arms race between the USSR, and the United States!?
Best Answer - Chosen by Asker:
On the social issues!.!.!.

Both sides used propoganda to make their people feel that the other side was "evil"!.

It bred distrust between the East and the West!.

USSR attemped to expand its sphere of influence over the world, just to watch the USA try to combat that influence!.

Economically speaking!.!.!.

The arms race meant that each side had to spend a great deal of their governments' money on developement, testing and building of weapons!. When old weapon systems became obsolete, they had to be dismantled and replaced - at an additional cost for each step!.

also, the USA's attempt to block Soviet expansionism around the globe meant money either had to be spent directly to combat that expansion (Vietnam) or given in foreign aid to reistance fighters (El Salvador)!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The collapse of the Soviet Union, the re-unification of Germany, a free Poland, Czech, Hungry, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine & Russia!.
A recognized failure of communism, the forming of the European Union, The bloody break up of the balkans states!. The fostering of dozen of democracies, a couple of revolts and little wars!.
The United States was left the single super power, which bankrupted itself by spending far more funds upon social projects, combating disease and poverty, promoting a world trade market, rebuilding of former Soviet satellites and other countries, and other social projects than it did on defense at the highest point of the arms race!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

The social and economic consequences are intertwined!.!.!.

The problem with socialism -- from each according their ability and to each according to their needs -- is that it sounds good on paper and may work in small scales such as villages in the Amazon, but doesn't work in reality for complex societies!. People quickly learn that the more they produce in socialistic societies, the more that is required from them without any great return to them!. And, they learn that if they don't do anything, or just do the minimum, then they are not really punished, but receive adequate shelter and food!. By taking away the reward for production, socialists societies take away the motive for increased production and so have an enforced common poverty!.

Capitalist societies, on the other hand, reward production -- to each according to his ability -- and so have a high motivation for increasing production!. This means that capitalistic societies create wealth, since wealth is valued by members!.

Now, when we talk about the arms race between the socialist Soviet Union and the capitalistic United States, the differing economic foundations had profound effects!.

In the Soviet Union, arms production was taken from the state's total ability to produce!. In other words, because there was not an incentive to produce, building tanks and missiles cost the Soviet Union in terms of reduced civilian production capability!. The more tanks produced, the fewer cars that could be produced!. The more army boots produced, the fewer shoes and so on!.

On the other hand, production of tanks and missiles, for Western economies, were done by surplus industrial production!. And, instead of subtracting from the economy, arms production in Western countries stimulated the economy!. These facts are shown by the percentage of GNP devoted to the military!. In Warsaw Pact countries, between a fifth and a third of the countries' economic output was devoted to defense!. In the West, this number was always between five and 10 percent!.

These strains really started to show during the U!.S!. buildup in the 1980s!. Under Ronald Reagan, the US increased its defense budget by tens of billions of dollars to pay for new ships, new missile systems, new aircraft, new tanks and an expanded army!. All of these things were affordable because they came from surplus production and, even then, provided a stimulus to the economy!.

The Soviet Union could not match the spending of the United States!. Any additional resources it moved to defense came at the expense of civilian production!. So, as the Soviet Union increased its defense spending in the 1980s to counter the United States, there were increasing shortages of civilian goods!. This combined with the Soviet military loss in Afghanistan, produced great unrest among the Soviet and Warsaw Pact populations!. The unrest, in turn, led to the downfall of the Communist dictatorships, first in Eastern Europe and then in the Soviet Union!.

So, the economic consequence is that the socialist economies of the Warsaw Pact nations and Soviet Union were unable to keep up with the capitalist economies of the United States and its allies and the US was able to spend the Soviets into bankruptcy!. This, in turn, caused deprivations among the civilian populace, which led to the revolution that overthrew communism!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

This would take a lot of time and space!. The U!.S!.S!.R!. after WW2 were not to be left behind in the race for property, and areas of interests, the paranoid tendencies of Soviet leader J!. Stalin pushed him to the brink of bankrupting the Country, his, on the premises of the U!.S!. are the bad guys!.
When they were in Afghanistan they had a A!.O!.L!. problem with their men that was so bad they had to send two to replace one in the hopes on one getting to their units!.
Their space stations were incredibly backward in time, one mention from an astronaut that was allowed to see them back then told tales of old plumbing fixtures on them as replacements for parts!.

On the other hand, the U!.S!. while getting further behind in the arms race was more apt at getting the answers before putting the horse on the buggy!.
There were mistakes and people did die but, we had a much better record!.

After the close of the wall the people were given their democracy in the U!.S!.S!. R!. they were so ingrained into the government doing their "work" for them, they didn't know what to do next with this democracy!. Tractors stood in the fields, some new, for the lack of parts, some fields stood M!.T, due to lack of knowledge of planting, the government always did it for them!.

You can go from here and find most answers on Wikipedia!.Www@QuestionHome@Com