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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.

6 Nov 2023 at 0:15 | Wall-to-wall | Open on rva.party
9 comments
Lewis

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

6 Nov 2023 at 1:01 | Open on mas.to
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

6 Nov 2023 at 2:22 | Open on kolektiva.social
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
6 Nov 2023 at 4:06 | Open on mastodon.sxpert.org
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.

6 Nov 2023 at 5:15 | Open on rva.party
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?”)

Screenshot of a Q&A answer: A: There is an indicator called "ratio of base-related income" as a proportion of the total income of prefectural residents. Base-related income includes rent paid to the owners of land used as bases and the incomes of those who work for the U.S. military. When Okinawa returned to Japan in 1972, gross prefectural income was 501.3 billion yen (about $3.48 billion), of which base-related income accounted for 15.5%. However, that percentage has declined with the growth of the Okinawan economy and has hovered around 5% since 1990. By 2017, gross prefectural income had increased to 4.67 trillion yen (about $32 billion), and the share of base-related income stood at 6%. Some have pointed out that Okinawa's economy will not be able to keep up without the bases, but the prefecture has stated that the impact of base-related revenue on its economy has become limited. Source article: https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20220908/p2a/00m/0op/033000c
Screenshot of an article section titled “Bayonets and bulldozers”: The US occupied all of Japan from the end of World War Two until the San Francisco Peace Treaty of 1952, when the country again became sovereign. But Okinawa stayed under American rule. During the 1950s, the US military began to expand its bases in Ie. The Americans requisitioned the land, destroying islanders' houses and crops. Farmers fell into poverty. Many starved to death. Yamashiro Kiyoshige, 68, says his parents lost their land and their jobs. He was an elementary school student at the time and made a living by collecting scrap metal from bombs that had been dropped by the Americans during military exercises. Source article: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/2044/
6 Nov 2023 at 2:29 | Open on pdx.masto.host
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)

6 Nov 2023 at 3:03 | Open on rva.party
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)

6 Nov 2023 at 3:03 | Open on rva.party
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