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To this end, a war that involves not only the physical intimacy of killing but also mortal struggles between cultures and ideologies arguably complicates the extent to and manner by which individual combatants engage in such behavior. No war fulfills these criteria so cleanly as World War II—it was a conflict that cost more people their lives than any war before, and as a global conflict, it brought vastly differing perspectives of death and killing to the battlefield. World War II represented not simply a struggle for national-ideological survival (though that it clearly was), but more importantly a struggle for the retention of the self through identity.
The occurrence of tragedies throughout history, whether it be natural disasters, pandemics, or wars, is inevitable. The way that humans have chosen to respond to destruction and disagreements has also changed. However, something that remains the same is that those with less monetary resources and political power are at a higher disadvantage whenever the world is under duress or hardship. This propensity (tendency) can be seen through the comparison of two very different yet very profound events in recent history, the COVID-19 pandemic and World War II. The two events are distinct in their time periods, the nature of the disaster that they caused, and the problems that were created by their existence. Although they are very dissimilar, those in the US who had less monetarily were still disadvantaged much more than those who were more affluent. This pattern of disparity is revealed through the use and failure of the supply chain during both events. A supply chain is the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a commodity or service (Supply Chain Definition & Meaning, n.d.). Although the supply chains used in World War II were not as fine-tuned as the ones required to distribute goods around the world today, World War II was instrumental in the refinement and use of the supply chain due to the high demand for goods and personnel across the world. During COVID-19 the quick shift in demand for unprecedented goods and services exposed the inflexibility of the world's largest supply chains, which in turn caused shortages around the world. For the United States government or large global corporations to fix the problems caused by these events, they both turned to the people who bear the majority of the burden of working overtime to account for the loss of goods; those who are most susceptible to the shortages of goods and services: those in lower-income communities.