Confrontations, from neighborhood squabbles all the way up through international wars, often become battles of economic attrition.
Let’s look at history. Our American War of Independence with Great Britain, whose success we are in the midst of celebrating, was decided in part because of the long supply lines the British faced and the fact that European countries, most notably France, as well as rich European individuals, fed money to the U.S. effort because they hated Great Britain. The French navy made those long supply lines even more tenuous and costly.
In a case of history repeating itself, we have a modern day equivalent with the proxy war the U.S. and NATO are fighting with Russia by sending money and arms to Ukraine.
Our American Civil War began with the South, possessor of superior generals and fighting forces, winning early battles. But the industrial and economic might of the North eventually turned the tide.
Both World Wars I and II were decided in large part because of the U.S. industrial production capacity, which escaped war damage and was a ready supplier of fresh war material to our side in each conflict.
Even the so-called cold war between the U.S. and western allies vs. the USSR-led communist bloc countries, ended for economic reasons, that being the superiority of the U.S. economy and our government’s willingness to dedicate virtually limitless dollars to defense spending.
With neighborhood squabbles, the scofflaws also tend, eventually, to cry Uncle! economically.
This concept has been captured through the years in popular song lyrics, from the Bobby Fuller Four’s “I fought the law and the law won,” through John Mellencamp’s “I fight authority, authority always wins.”
Continue to violate zoning ordinances, court decisions and the like, and the cost can be extreme. Fines can mount quickly and, should that not make an impression, incarceration, some would say the ultimate cost, can follow.
To be sure, idle threats still can be made, as can rebel-without-a-cause stands. Eventually, economic reality prevails.
Authority, as defined by the police, the laws and the courts, have unlimited resources once they identify a problem as worthy of addressing. In an ironic twist, they could, in effect, use fines paid by scofflaws to prosecute those same individuals.
The issue of dollars and cents has a way of bringing sense back into the picture.
Sam Ross Jr's site 