From Pine View Farm

Endless War and the Entitlement Society 1

At the Asia Times, Ellen Brown considers how military spending is actually a drag on the economy. A nugget (emphasis added):

Why is the military’s half of the pie sacrosanct? Wasteful and unnecessary military programs get a pass from legislators because the military is also our largest and most secure jobs program, one that has penetrated into the nooks and crannies of Every Town, USA. If it were disbanded, the economy would be crippled by soaring unemployment, plant closures, and bankruptcies. Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power, writes:

Most politicians understand … that weapons production is currently the number one industrial export product of the US. They know that major industrial job creation is largely coming from the Pentagon. Thus most politicians, from both parties, want to continue to support the military industrial complex gravy train for their communities.

That explains why the country seems to be permanently at war. If we had peace, the war machine would be out of a job. Every year since World War II, the US has been at war somewhere. It has been said that if we didn’t have a war to fight, we would have to create one just to keep the war business going. We have a military empire of over 800 bases around the world. What is to become of them when the lion lies down with the lamb and peace reigns everywhere?

She goes on the explore ways to move to an economy that’s not based on killing somebody somewhere day after day.

June 22, 2011 | Posted by: Frank | Posted in: Political Economy | Bookmark this post

1 comment

Dick Destiny » The Empire’s Dog Feces: Arms manufacturing -is- entitlement spending
June 22, 2011 at 10:25 am

[…] Pine View Farm tips us to an article on the same in the Asia Times today. […]