Joshua Holland — Rising income inequality makes us want to bomb the crap out of everyone: study

MIT political scientist Jonathan Caverley, author of Democratic Militarism Voting, Wealth, and War, and himself a US Navy veteran, argues that increasingly high-tech militaries, with all-volunteer armies that sustain fewer casualties in smaller conflicts, combine with rising economic inequality to create perverse incentives that turn the conventional view of war on its head. His research looks at public opinion and military aggressiveness, and concludes that it’s the working class and poor who are more likely to favor military action today. And that bottom-up pressure makes wealthy democracies more aggressive.

BillMoyers.com spoke with Caverley about his research. The transcript below has been edited for length and clarity.

Rational behavior actually, in terms of cost/benefit. But the headline overstates the case.

Raw Story
Rising income inequality makes us want to bomb the crap out of everyone: study
Joshua Holland, Moyers & Company