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@Matt5sean3 @chrisisgr8 That’s a really great point!

Thinking about that, it’s probably because a dollar spent on the space program doesn’t eventually enrich the ruling class.
Whereas a dollar spent by the DOD, $.70 of that eventually winds up in the pocket of the ruling class.
Then they give Joe Biden and Mitch McConnell $.10 of that dollar as a “campaign donation”, and the cycle repeats.

10 comments
Matt5sean3

@Mrw @chrisisgr8 Absolutely, also don't forget that the military is probably the biggest collection of pork barrel projects in US history. Shut down a military base and you're sometimes closing the biggest source of good jobs for an otherwise poor community.

Lewis

@Matt5sean3 @Mrw @chrisisgr8
They get paid to murder and oppress the poor all over the world...

Leftist Lawyer

@Matt5sean3 @Mrw @chrisisgr8 "Biggest collection"? No no. The problem (from an actual market perspective and not crony capitalist perspective which, fuck both I'm a socialist) is that it's the smallest. See Matt Stoller here: thebignewsletter.com/p/why-ame

sxpert
@LeftistLawyer @Matt5sean3 @Mrw @chrisisgr8
Maybe the US being out of ammunition is not a bad thing, if it help them stop waging useless imperialist wars everywhere
Matt5sean3

@LeftistLawyer @Mrw @chrisisgr8

I was slow to respond to this because I wanted to sit down and read the article. I've failed in not yet mentioning that the military is, in fact, a big grift. Yes, even on capitalist terms. I guess I forgot this isn't common knowledge.

The article isn't shocking news, that's the least of it. Up until around 2012 or so the DoD would have companies evaluating the bids on projects that they had themselves bid on in an obvious conflict of interest.

DELETED

@Matt5sean3 Just for perspective - my family is part of this “otherwise poor community”, but at least in Okinawa, it’s a chicken-or-the-egg question. (“Is the community poor *because* of the military base, which was built on forcibly seized land after 1/4 of the population was killed, which crippled/is still warping the local economy?”)

I’m not sure if other places have it, but there’s a measure called “ratio of base-related income”, which apparently is only ~5% now: mainichi.jp/english/articles/2

@Matt5sean3 Just for perspective - my family is part of this “otherwise poor community”, but at least in Okinawa, it’s a chicken-or-the-egg question. (“Is the community poor *because* of the military base, which was built on forcibly seized land after 1/4 of the population was killed, which crippled/is still warping the local economy?”)

Matt5sean3

@agnes

That's an important perspective.

I was talking about bases in mainland US mostly. For many states it's undeniable that the military bases prop up the economy because areas with the bases are doing well and similar areas away from the bases are a reference for how the economy would do otherwise.

For a place like Ohio, you get a Beavercreek near Dayton attached to Wright-Patterson AFB that is doing well while the surrounding area is mostly run down and disinvested.

(1/2)

Matt5sean3

@agnes

You do see perhaps a little of what you’re talking about in Virginia, which does wildly well in northern Virginia in large part to military expenditure, but also has a healthy economy in central Virginia that stands mostly on its own merits. Government shutdowns demonstrate the usually invisible disruption the military plays in parts of the state as the economy of northern Virginia crumbles during such shut downs. (2/2)

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