Yet food costs between 1939 and 1943 had gone up in mining towns by almost 125 percent. Moreover, the rate of mining accident deaths--64,0000 in 1941, 75,000 in 1942 and 100,000 in 1943--exceeded the death rate in the army during the war.
Patriotism is for the working class, not those who rule. War is big business, the biggest of all. It's not just the arms/gear/outfitter businesses, it's the ability of the Lords of Capital to extract concessions on the basis of wartime necessity. Before WW1, the War Industries Board, headed by uberscum Bernard Baruch, got workers to agree to forego raises and strikes, and induced smaller wholesalers to agree to keep their prices down, all in the name of national unity. They then sold these goods, now artificially reduced in price, on the open market to whoever would pay the most, including sales to Axis powers. No patriotism here, only profits, and only for Wall Street.
I recommend this article.
http://socialistworker.org/2011/06/24/labor-during-the-second-world-war
