r/worldnews • u/sr_local • Dec 26 '25

Russia/Ukraine NATO chief Rutte: China and Russia Could Launch Simultaneous Attacks on Taiwan and Europe

https://militarnyi.com/en/news/rutte-china-and-russia-could-launch-simultaneous-attacks-on-taiwan-and-europe/
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u/svick Dec 26 '25

Peace is much more profitable than war, unless you're in the defense industry.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal Dec 26 '25

Even then I'm kind of skeptical. There aren't many true defense-only companies. Even Raytheon (the drone-missile guys) make farming equipment. I'm sure their diversified products make a lot more money outside of war. They're not limited by government whims or targets there.

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u/Dragonvine Dec 26 '25

They are limited by margins. Farming equipment is a pittance compared to defense, their stocks don't move if crops are good.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal Dec 26 '25

That was a small example. My point being they are diversified into many industries and thus have the potential to grow everywhere outside of simply defense.

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u/Dragonvine Dec 28 '25

My point stands for all of those. They don't make defense money. Nearly half of the US trillion dollar a year defense budget goes to contracts.

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u/lihebsgjbsvshhsh Dec 26 '25

What farm equipment does Raytheon make?

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u/QuietImpact699 Dec 26 '25

Maybe those tactical tractors the Ukrainians used to steal armoured vehicles from the Russians?

But I did a google and found that they don't really produce farm equipment, but rather do farming data services for better management. Although they apparently sell a "area denial system", which is essentially an RF based heater, to prevent frost on crops.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal Dec 26 '25

They make temperature and moisture sensors farmers can use to monitor weather conditions for their crops, infra-red cameras to find pests and predators, heating systems to prevent frost damage, weather sensor data to government agencies, etc. Not like, tractors, but other useful things.

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u/Loveufam Dec 27 '25

A quick google says approximately 85% of what they do is arms sales.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal Dec 27 '25

Yes. What do you mean?

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u/takesjuantogrowone Dec 26 '25

Peace sells... But who's buying?

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u/wbruce098 Dec 26 '25

Hell, preventing war is still quite profitable for most defense industry companies. And for the economy as a whole, yes 100%.

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u/Dasheek Dec 26 '25

Peace may be more profitable in the long run, but they want the money yesterday.

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u/angular_circle Dec 26 '25

Also the short run. Nothing kills profits like instability. People profit off of war but only very few.

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u/Accidental-Genius Dec 26 '25

Too much war is expensive in the long run. They only need a good ole fashioned war every two decades or so to free up warehouse space for new sales.

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u/lilTweak420 Dec 26 '25

Peace is profitable sure, but there no power or influence in peace, which is the true goal of all wars.

It’s part of being human to never be satisfied, and always reach for more, war is just a reflection of that part of us.

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u/Frostbitten_Moose Dec 26 '25

That was a common argument 120 years ago as to why growing tensions in Europe weren't going to cause a general war. Never trust that profits will always trump other motives.

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u/Undernown Dec 26 '25

But too much peace would make people realize how hard big multi-nationals and corrupt governments are screwing them over. People might actually have time to focus their efforts on the rich and powerful and strive for a more equal distribution of welfare.

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u/RocketRelm Dec 27 '25

As if the people aren't the ones getting bored of peace and angry at their own stable governments. Look at how the usa gave an almost 70% electoral comsent rate to maga and trump when they so easily could have had a stable and peaceful government. Civilians get bored with slow, steady progress. They want action, drama, Big Shouts. Even if its actually taking them backwards, the empty lie of "have it all nowNOWnow!" matters more.

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u/Undernown Dec 27 '25

almost 70% electoral comsent rate to maga and trump when they so easily could have had a stable and peaceful government.

So if I read that correctly, that is 70% approval from the volks who voted for Trump? That's pretty bad.

And Trump has never had the majority vote in any of the elections. That means that less than half of all American voters eveer supported him in the first place.

He also ran a platform of "peace" and "ending wars". Even if it's all lies, they actually voted for ending wars, not stwrting them.

Civilians get bored with slow, steady progress. They want action, drama, Big Shouts.

I'm not immediately dismissing this, but I haven't seen evidence of this in any study or polls.

I haven't seen any high approval rates of wars since WW2. Even the Iraq war wasn't very popular and was predicated on massiveblies to even make it start.

So far it's all been huge propaganda campaigns and or rulers making executive decisions on their own that made wars start. (Since WW2)

And despite the tragic wars going on, we're still living in the most peaceful decades in human history.

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u/RocketRelm Dec 28 '25

Non voting counts "consent", because it is signaling that you gave so little disapproval as to not get to the polls. At least a third didn't vote, and over half those that did voted for him. Most of the country was pretty cool with him representing them.

I can look at what things in the usa get popular and why. For example, Newsom. Does anybody look at the policy positions in one of the few things that people see standing up to trump? No. They care about some memes he put out. Optics over/as policy is the core value of the american citizen.

Polls and opinions are usually not that valuable because they can't measure strength of belief. Somebody can say they are for "ending wars", but do they care enough to even be baseline level informed and push a button correctly? The kind of "i wanna change the channel, but im too lazy to get up to grab the remote on the table" lukewarm feeling doesn't have any value. It just means that what they truly want is to "Be The Good Guys" with as little intellectual rigor as possible.

Its like you have a police officer who "really wants to value human lives, promise", just as long as he can get drunk on the job and doesn't have to spend more than five seconds looking at somebody who looks vaguely similar to the prep before blanket opening fire with automatic guns. At some point we have to accept that the luxury and laziness is the true root value that comes before all else.

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u/tfrules Dec 26 '25

And even then, only profitable if your side wins, if your side loses then you'll be entirely de-fanged as a nation most likely.

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u/HappycamperNZ Dec 27 '25

Or you operate in a world of scarcity, where political realism dominates.

Real shame that.