Wartime government sponsorship guaranteed profits, markets, and R&D for American business

Evidence

Under President Roosevelt, the US government’s deal with Big Business was simple: they would produce what was necessary to win the war and, in exchange, the state would reward them with four incredible gifts. First, state guaranteed sales translating into state guaranteed profits. Second, freedom from competition, since prices were fixed by government. Third, huge government-funded scientific research (e.g. the Manhattan Project, jet propulsion) that provided Big Business with wonderful new innovations and a pool of highly skilled scientific personnel to recruit from during and after the war. — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 141

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the institutional political-economy literature on how states underwrote capitalist industrial development during WWII. — connects to: World War II fused American business and government into a shared managerial elite — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 146; The war economy handed Big Business guaranteed profits and immunity from competition — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, 141; State and market institutions share a drive toward guaranteed outcomes — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1227 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The war economy handed Big Business guaranteed profits and immunity from competition #corroborates (1.00) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 141
• Postwar advertising arose to manufacture demand once government guaranteed sales ended #complicates (0.80) — Yanis Varoufakis, Technofeudalism, 150
• State and market institutions share a drive toward guaranteed outcomes #expands (0.72) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 1227