Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter plane with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

• President Eisenhower

Problem is, the military DOES create jobs. And you missed the part where that same military budget pumps money not only into the general economy, but more so local economies. We often see these expenditures as waste, but that money comes back around. Well, after the top dogs skim their pieces.

From a regional point of view, yanking military bases around here would create a blast crater of nuclear proportions. From a personal point of view, there are plenty of high-paying IT jobs around here, all military. Yank those? Do you imagine those same people could just go work IT in an elementary school or train depot? (Disclaimer: I’m in IT, private enterprise, but I see the jobs, know how the industry works.) Sure, lots of IT is WFH, like me, but much requires boots on the ground.

So how do we dial this back? I haven’t a clue. Democrats are already perceived as weak on defense, and a Republican reformer would get primaried. You want to run for office on the promise of cutting military spending? Keep in mind, you generally have to work your way up the food chain from local -> state -> federal. Gonna tell these locals you intend to kill their livelihood?

Here’s where you say, “Put that money into sane projects like schools, parks, trains, housing, etc.!” How to you propose talking voters out of giving up a sure thing, a thing their economy and workers have been geared to for decades, for a nebulous future? FFS, we can’t get conservatives to agree that education, or any of those items, are GOOD things. Even if we ALL agreed to go for it, these things take time, and meanwhile people are unemployed.

Only thing I got is to attack it from a waste point of view. But even that tack can fail! Had a client tell me one time that every cut to the military cuts from the private troops, while the generals (and contractors!) continue to live high on the hog. Kinda hard to argue that one.

I don’t know if, or where, you work, but if I came into your hypothetical business and said, “We’re making cuts so we can have a healthier company! We’re going to invest in the future!” Do you think those cuts would come from executive pay, or would you suddenly have to requisition staples, in triplicate? Probably get laid off.

Fuck it. I’m old and cynical, but I’m open to ideas.

thriving wage

New term unlocked, love it.