Guns (Swords) or Butter Explanation

from Elemental Forums

I've seen some people ask about this phrase and wanted to quickly shed some light on the subject. Thank you, Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model

It's basically the decision made to either spend money on food and infrastructure OR weapons (guns) and defense OR a combination of both. Perhaps this help shed some light on some of FrogBrad's posts. 

elemental
3,514 views 2 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

I've seen some people ask about this phrase and wanted to quickly shed some light on the subject. Thank you, Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_versus_butter_model

It's basically the decision made to either spend money on food and infrastructure OR weapons (guns) and defense OR a combination of both. Perhaps this help shed some light on some of FrogBrad's posts.
End of quote

By way of example, the Civilization series only allows you to have one active project in a city at any given time.  So if you're building a soldier, you can't be building a granary at the same time.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I was surprised that so many people didn't understand the reference.

Anyways... I take it that not everyone played this game back in 1990. ^_^

(proof that you can learn something from video games)

The Global Dilemma: Guns or Butter
http://www.mobygames.com/game/global-dilemma-guns-or-butter

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