War profiteering

War profiteering is when people or companies make money by taking advantage of a war. Imagine a playground where two kids are fighting over a toy. One kid might try to take advantage of the situation by selling toys to both kids at a higher price than usual. This is what war profiteering is like, with the added problem that it involves real people's lives.

During a war, governments need to buy a lot of things like weapons, food, and medical supplies for the soldiers. War profiteers are people who sell these things to the government at an inflated price, which means the government has to spend more money than it should.

Sometimes, these people might even sell the government things that don't work very well or are of poor quality- think of a toy that breaks before you've even played with it. This is dangerous because it puts soldiers' lives at risk.

War profiteers can also make money by exploiting people in war-torn countries. For example, they might buy land or resources at a very low price because people are desperate to sell their things to survive. These profiteers then sell these things for more money elsewhere, without giving the people who originally owned them a fair share of the profits. It's like taking someone else's toy without asking and then trying to sell it to others.

In short, war profiteering is exploiting a bad situation (war) to make money, even if it hurts other people. It's like taking advantage of a fight between two kids to make some extra pocket money. But unlike in the playground, in war profiteering, real people's lives and safety are at risk.