Subject: Re: Spy down another 4 percent,
What a difference in our (the US) attitudes between post WW2 and present. The foresight of individuals like George Marshall and the European Recovery Program enacted in 1948.

From Wikipedia

The US transferred $ 13.3 billion (equivalent to $133 billion in 2024) to Europe to rebuild.

The goals of the United States were to rebuild war-torn regions, remove trade barriers, modernize industry, improve European prosperity and prevent the spread of communism. The Marshall Plan proposed the reduction of interstate barriers and the economic integration of the European Continent while also encouraging an increase in productivity as well as the adoption of modern business procedures.

In contrast to the bitterness after WW1 that resulted in another WW two decades later there hasn’t been a major war in eight + decades.

Somehow, I beginning to realize that the bitterness brigade is on the march again.