Were the Inquesition, Crusades, 3rd Reich, all OK b/c they created jobs?

Well, many American businessmen openly admired Hitler right up to 1939. Then he kind of fell out of favor. for obvious reasons, although many still secretly thought of him as a great man. He sure did create jobs and under the third reich, it was a good time to be an industrialist.

Your touching on a fascinating question that was one of the most important reasons I personally decided I wanted to study economics: How can it be that our biggest problem is creating work? Throughout the history of mankind, work was seen as an unpleasant necessity, or even a curse for original sin. Nowadays, the biggest problem faced by our politicians is: "How do we create work for people?", simply because work has become synonymous with participation in society.

In my view (it's far from orthodox as far as economics are concerned), our economy is no longer geared at fulfilling needs, but at creating them. The whole organization of our society demands that we become constantly dissatisfied with anything we have the minute we have it. Our grandparents used to take good care of their things to make them last a long time. Today, you're expected to throw things out because old means obsolete. Technology, fashion, style, etc... have to change quickly enough to make replacement look unattractive (coupled with a culture of consumption that values the consumer and denigrates simplicity).

Veblen thought among those lines as well. He coined the phrase "conspicuous consumption", the idea that past a certain point, economic growth had more to do with keeping up with the Jones' than anything else. Environmental economists also tend to think along those lines: They have introduced models which take into account environmental damage as a net economic loss to the entire society.

Inquisition (you spelled it wrong): Didn't create jobs, just gave something new for already existing priests to do.

Crusades: Took much needed agricultural workers and semi-educated feudal elites off of the land and got them killed, did not create jobs.

3rd Reich: Would have been "OK" if they'd won and where the ones writing the history books.

According to Republicans, yes.