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Date: | Fri Mar 31 17:18:19 2006 |
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----------------- HES POSTING -----------------
Here is a rather trivial question about the origins of a phrase. In a
first-year lecture, I used 'guns' and 'butter' on the axes of a
standard gains-from-trade diagram. One of my students mailed me
afterwards, suggesting that this particular example was started by
Hitler, who campaigned for rearmamament with the slogan "guns
not butter". His mail is below.
Assuming my student is right about Hitler, my question is: is that
where the guns/butter example came from, or was it already in
circulation? I have a vague memory that the guns/butter opposition
may have been used in the run-up to the first world war, but it isn't
a firm enough memory to rely on.
The question, of course, is about the specific opposition: guns v.
butter, not the general idea of alternatives or gains from trade (like
Ricardo's wine/cloth).
Fowarded (and shortened) message:
To: Tony Brewer
Hi. I'm a First Year Bristol Economics student, and revising through
your lecture notes, noticed the references to trade in guns and butter,
and remembered you saying in a lecture that you weren't sure why it is
always guns and butter given as an example. I think it relates to 1930s
Germany, when in a propaganda campaign Adolph Hitler urged Germany to
produce "guns not butter" - i.e. that the country should be producing
heavy industrial and military goods, not what was then a luxury food
item.
Cheers, Will Holman
Tony Brewer ([log in to unmask])
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