Arsenal (and Imposed Denial) of Democracy 1.0

1.0: The Question

A conventional wisdom is that one of the reasons that Nazi Germany lost WWII was that it was still devoting resources to production of "luxury" goods even up until the very last days of the war. The implication is that, in contrast, the United States was rationing everything, so therefore the U.S. won the war. That stands in sharp contrast to what the federal government was pushing post 9/11. There was a fear that our economy would collapse, if we didn't spend spend spend.

Which approach is correct: A command economy that stiffles consumer spending or a command economy that promotes it - or neither? Well, Nazi Germany was dealing with a vastly different economic reality than WWII U.S. or War-on-Terrorism U.S., but I think it is profitable to compare the approaches, or at least bust some myths.