We have a huge component of defense spending that exits just to subsidize the economy. Remember when the USSR claimed 100% employment? How did they pull that off? By making everyone a government employee (many of them military) and paying them to do things that brought no economic value. How did that work out for them in the long run?
We are doing the same thing today in the defense industry. Taxing the public and redistributing the wealth through the military-industrial complex. It is no different than the socialist systems of the USSR and North Korea, but some folks can’t see it that way because they’ve been duped into thinking that labeling the government-controlled defense economy as socialist would somehow be un-American.
The purpose of the military should be defense, not economic stimulus. Our military spending is comparable to the rest of the world combined (including or allies.) There is no conceivable way that this amount of spending is necessary for our protection. The only explanation is that most of it is simply a glorified worker/welfare program.
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Pri: I spent my years in the Army during the waning years of the Cold War (1983 – 1988) and as part of Reagan’s “Million Man Army”. I think during the Cold War one could make a legitimate case for spending the dollars we did on defense and that spending ultimately ended the Soviet Union.
However, you cannot make that same case now, and even lining up the Chinese, Russians, NKoreans and Iranians, we’d be hard-pressed to not only justify the dollars, but some of the programs as well. The C-17 is an excellent example of unnecessary spending, as is the F-35. However, they are outstanding pork programs and defense contractors have learned to subcontract out through various congressional districts to keep the support in place.
We need to cut defense, along with entitlement spending and we need to raise taxes. I realize, as a conservative, that represents a marked departure from ideology, but we’re rapidly approaching the point of no return and need to learn the lessons of Greece, Japan and the larger Euro-zone.
