I don't really have any data to back this... just my personal view.
Every time I go to a supermarket, I have a short moment where I look around and realize how much food is stored within these places. Then I think about how many supermarkets are within each city... and then how much of this food is simply wasted because these supermarkets must make their profit and do not consider helping the problem of hunger.
This goes for every major life supporting industry. We seem to have more than enough of everything (food, clothing, medicine, homes, cars, phones) and the owners at the top will never share or give any amount to those in need.
We have so much abundance and have for decades...
George Orwell - http://www.orwelltoday.com/peace.shtml
The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent. Even when weapons of war are not actually destroyed, their manufacture is still a convenient way of expending labour power without producing anything that can be consumed. A Floating Fortress, for example, has locked up in it the labour that would build several hundred cargo-ships. Ultimately it is scrapped as obsolete, never having brought any material benefit to anybody, and with further enormous labours another Floating Fortress is built. In principle the war effort is always so planned as to eat up any surplus that might exist after meeting the bare needs of the population. Warfare is also useful in keying up the morale to the necessary pitch.
The war, therefore, if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are set at such an angle that they are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that a hierarchical society needs.
War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects.