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•130 The 100 Greatest Business Ideas of All Time
consume the consumables such as missiles and smart bombs. Just look at the statis-
tics of the only American aircraft carrier in the Gulf by the end of 2002 – the 88,000-
tonne USS Constellation, (The UK’s biggest, the Ark Royal, is a mere 20,000 tonnes).
The ‘Connie’ carries 5000 people, 72 combat aircraft and 30 different types of air-
launched weapons. This includes the Slammer (stand-off land-attack missile – ex-
panded response), which can choose its targets as it goes along, after it has been
launched into the general direction of the enemy – $500,000 a pop.
It is also not just a job for fighters fit to be heroes; to fight the war in Iraq will
require 1000 battle planners. So any type of person can get involved in a war, prob-
ably the greatest business idea of all time.
On the other hand
Wars have to be financed and generally that is done through increased taxa-
tion. In the USA, for instance, the importance of personal income tax as a
source of revenues increased enormously during World War II. During that
period they introduced higher tax rates, lower exemptions and deductions at
source. At the same time the UK and many other of the belligerent nations
resorted to a general sales tax.
