[rswail]

The US was left eseentially undamaged by WW2, its industrial base was vastly enhanced. While Europe and USSR had to rebuild, the US was able to build from that enhanced base.

The Marshall plan provided a mechanism for the US to fund European rebuilding, which caused Europe to purchase industrial goods and machinery from the US, using those very same funds. The end result was a win-win through to the early 1970s.

At the same time, the USSR was rebuilding from an even more destroyed economy than Europe and could only leverage its domination of Eastern Europe. China was occupied with its own political upheavals and Japan was in the same state as Europe.

The post war "military industrial complex" warned about by Eisenhower, is a real thing. The US has a large military because the large military is a way to recycle taxation to defence employment. The US doesn't need a military that costs $750b per annum and is larger than the next 10 nations combined. However, US employment requires that military to keep the balls in the air. It provides industrial employment to people in places where it isn't financially prudent and the military itself provides employment for those that can't get employment in the general economy.

In essence, the US military is a giant social security network for the US. It consumes vast resources to do so and could be done at much lower cost, but the likelihood of that occurring is zero due to the vested interests.