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It seems that the military complex in the US is a country-wide employment program paid by taxes.

by apta 6y ago

1propionyl 6y ago
This is true, and goes back to the settling of the Western territories. Amusingly, many of them allied with Southern Democrats (this was in the 19th century before the party platform switch) in proclaiming their desire for independence from the oppressive government, while in reality their livelihoods were entirely dependent on the government paying out money (railroad subsidies, agricultural subsidies, homesteading programs, etc). It also had a lot to do with for the anti-black sentiment of the South aligning with the anti-native and anti-Chinese sentiment of the west. This is also true in particular of the rise of California, which at one point accounted for nearly half of the country's military spending. If California were a startup, it's angel investors were the military and those seeking gold (or more precisely, those seeking to establish railheads to ship it back East).
- staticautomatic 6y ago
  Around that same time, something like 80 percent of all federal jobs were at the Postal Service.
athriren 6y ago
This is quite literally true given the amount of money and jobs the defense base (not just direct contractors but the entire supply chain) injects into local economies. Most of American manufacturing has been off-shored. Regulations prevent defense base procurement of even raw materials (such as aluminum, titanium, and steel) not made in the US. Presentations are made to congresspeople of the first, second, and third order economic effects this has particular to their district down to supplier street address (dealing with .shp files will one day kill me) with heat maps of surrounding economic activity driven by the location of these businesses. These four lunch places entirely sustained by this job site, those jobs helping drive a couple service industry jobs, etc. I’ve come to view the defense contractor space as pretty much a 1:1 economic response to the hollowing out of American industry during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Onshoring back the dollars in the only mutually politically viable way. Social spending has become verboten for Republicans. “Big business” is the same for Democrats. But they both know they need this massive injection of cash into the American economy to avoid the political situation becoming factually untenable. I think Americans probably need significantly more discontent and mistreatment by the state in order to become politically incoherent but if this spending (which is essentially welfare due to its excess post Cold War) disappeared it would be guaranteed.
_trampeltier 6y ago
When I heard recently about the last person who got pension money from the us civil war, I asked myself if the us military is the start for something like an universal basic income.
solarkraft 6y ago
Every way in which a government spends money somehow is. In its essence it's a way to direct your citizen's productivity at something. That something could just as well be advancing renewable energy, modernizing infrastructure or educating people, but ... yeah, if you really want to you can spend it on weapons, I guess.

It seems that the military complex in the US is a country-wide employment program paid by taxes.

by apta 6y ago

It seems that the military complex in the US is a country-wide employment program paid by taxes.

This is true, and goes back to the settling of the Western territories. Amusingly, many of them allied with Southern Democrats (this was in the 19th century before the party platform switch) in proclaiming their desire for independence from the oppressive government, while in reality their livelihoods were entirely dependent on the government paying out money (railroad subsidies, agricultural subsidies, homesteading programs, etc). It also had a lot to do with for the anti-black sentiment of the South aligning with the anti-native and anti-Chinese sentiment of the west. This is also true in particular of the rise of California, which at one point accounted for nearly half of the country's military spending. If California were a startup, it's angel investors were the military and those seeking gold (or more precisely, those seeking to establish railheads to ship it back East).

staticautomatic 6y ago
Around that same time, something like 80 percent of all federal jobs were at the Postal Service.

athriren 6y ago

This is quite literally true given the amount of money and jobs the defense base (not just direct contractors but the entire supply chain) injects into local economies. Most of American manufacturing has been off-shored. Regulations prevent defense base procurement of even raw materials (such as aluminum, titanium, and steel) not made in the US. Presentations are made to congresspeople of the first, second, and third order economic effects this has particular to their district down to supplier street address (dealing with .shp files will one day kill me) with heat maps of surrounding economic activity driven by the location of these businesses. These four lunch places entirely sustained by this job site, those jobs helping drive a couple service industry jobs, etc. I’ve come to view the defense contractor space as pretty much a 1:1 economic response to the hollowing out of American industry during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Onshoring back the dollars in the only mutually politically viable way. Social spending has become verboten for Republicans. “Big business” is the same for Democrats. But they both know they need this massive injection of cash into the American economy to avoid the political situation becoming factually untenable. I think Americans probably need significantly more discontent and mistreatment by the state in order to become politically incoherent but if this spending (which is essentially welfare due to its excess post Cold War) disappeared it would be guaranteed.

_trampeltier 6y ago

When I heard recently about the last person who got pension money from the us civil war, I asked myself if the us military is the start for something like an universal basic income.

solarkraft 6y ago

Every way in which a government spends money somehow is. In its essence it's a way to direct your citizen's productivity at something. That something could just as well be advancing renewable energy, modernizing infrastructure or educating people, but ... yeah, if you really want to you can spend it on weapons, I guess.