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A professor in college suggested to me that if good people don't work for defense companies, then only bad people will be working in defense companies.
by a3n 11y ago
A professor in college suggested to me that if good people don't work for defense companies, then only bad people will be working in defense companies.
- forgotpasswd3x 11y agoWith everything revealed in the Snowden leaks, it doesn't seem like the good people are having much of an impact.
- vocatus_gate 11y agoI left the NSA a few months ago after working for them four years for that very reason. I realized nothing I did was going to affect what they were doing, and while I personally couldn't effect any change, I could at least leave and not contribute to it. So I did.
- pvnick 11y agoI just wanted to say that reading your comment was encouraging and made me happy.
- chinathrow 11y agoThanks for posting this.
- nickpsecurity 11y agoDid you consider IAD or one of the defense contractors focused on highly-secure technology? Hell, even groups doing R&D funded by NSF or DARPA on secure systems work. There's a ton of stuff going on out there that either (a) benefits security of government/military or (b) could benefit everyone at some point. I can understand if (a) didn't interest you but being ex-NSA might help with positions doing (b). Not sure how INFOSEC people would react given the climate, though. Wise ones should see a skill and character reference from getting and quiting the job respectively.
- pdkl95 11y agoThank you not only for posting this, but also for refusing to contribute.
- ionised 11y agoI commend you for your decision.
- eli_gottlieb 11y agoAt that point, why should there even be private defense companies? Why do we accept that weapons manufacturing is outside of democratic control and civilian restraint?
- a3n 11y agoInteresting question. I have no idea one way or the other, I've never studied economics beyond 101. An exploration of that question might include why the US relied on private industry for WWII military needs, rather than building its own factories or taking over existing ones.
- Zigurd 11y agoThe US effectively commandeered private industry in WWII. They were compensated, but that was nothing like the current military weapons procurements system.
- a3n 11y agoBut they were still private. Under orders, just like individual citizens were under orders, with the draft and rationing. It was arguably an existential threat. But the commandeered private industry was what the current MIC grew from. It wouldn't have happened without WWII.
- ethbro 11y agoIt's not outside of civilian control and democratic restraint in the US. It's just an extremely convoluted route from that to the end product. In fact, we'd probably get a better deal if there were less so. The amount of money wasted on politically-supported but infeasible/impractical systems is mind boggling.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- logicallee 11y agoThis contains a hidden logical error. For example, no good people are working to simulate the original ENIAC at the vacuum tube level on the Apple watch. But no bad people are working on it either.