Economic principles are the key to understanding the downfalls of war, according to Walter Block.

In a lecture Tuesday night sponsored by the Loyola Peace Group, Block, professor of business administration, and Marty Roland, a professor at Tulane and the University of New Orleans, used the concepts of economics to speak against war.

Examining war through the clean-cut lens of economic principles reveals that war seldom pays off, according Block. He continued that its the concept that says that if nothing is destroyed, then nothing will need to be replaced.

Roland, who holds a doctorate in urban studies, also pointed to reasons against war.

His main issue is that war destroys both public capital, which would be actual money and urban infrastructure, and public wealth, which refers to things like services, such as a society’s access to health care, or a thriving school system.

According to Block, a strong society is dependent on maintaining both public capitol and public wealth.

Roland uses this example when arguing against war because of its high cost.

“New Orleans public schools -maybe they were like third in line at congress or the state house, and ‘Hey, we need some money.’ Well then the Iraq war comes on, well now they’re three thousandth in line,” Roland said.

So rather than destroying the infrastructure of Iraq, Roland says to invest the energy and money toward the United States’ public capital and public wealth.

The Rev. Peter Bernardi, S.J., an associate professor in religious studies, brought up the question of how to decide when to intervene in world disputes. He used the war in Kosovo as an example. And that a strict non-intervention posture defies modern-day global mass-culture.