The defense base has shrunk in dangerous ways, mostly because defense contractors have consolidated power. A few members of Congress are trying to fix the problem.
Matt, I think that I'm going to have to unsubscribe because this sort of piece just gets under my skin and raises my blood pressure!! This. is. not. that. complicated! And, unfortunately, it just adds to the pile of scorn that I already have for our elected officials. If they could just do their damn job. But, yes, this will be another letter Richard Shelby (so old), Tommy Tuberville (wizard of the pigskin) and Robert Aderholdt can file in their "don't bother me, I'm fundraising" stack.
Neil Howe asserts that major change only happens in a fourth turning when confronted with major crisis. Maybe. It will be interesting - to say the least.
Frankly Matt, I don't much care if we are depleting our military stock - maybe that would be an incentive to stop provoking confrontations all over the planet - hmmm, let's not poke these folks, they might hit back and they are better stocked than we are - maybe that would keep us from sending all that stuff to Ukraine - keep it here in case we need it
What we should have been restocking was our strategic supply cache of PPE etc. for the pandemic - a cache we depleted after the flu epidemic some years ago which was never replaced - how's that stock now? Are we prepared for another "foe" - like this virus, that has killed more Americans than Russia or China and still hasn't been defeated ...
As for the "American System" outlined by Hamilton after the Revolutionary war - I don't think it was ALL about having enough industrial capacity to make weapons - it was about making our country as self-sufficient as possible - making enough to supply the American people with what we needed - what happened, it seems to me, was folks got greedy for overseas "markets", not just for trading for goods we needed and couldn't make ourselves - but for profit ... it became not about the health and strength of the American people, but about the "health and strength" of corporations measured in terms of profits, stock price and shareholder value .... and the chickens have come home to roost ....
Don't disagree with much of the Decline of Military article, but it should have included at least acknowledgment that Bill Perry TOLD the defense industrial leadership in 1993 at the famous "last supper" that they must consolidate if they wanted to survive.
"Holt went over the business strategy of U.S. defense contractors, noting their goal is to lowball contracts but keep control of intellectual property."
What about introducing a law that requires tax payer funded development to be in the public domain?
The UK has sth like this for research. All scientific publications funded by the taxpayer need to be published in open access journals.
The US had the largest manufacturing capability which it was able to switch over to weapons making, during WWII. That’s how the war was won, with the capacity to MAKE stuff. That capacity has been outsourced to an adversary. Making stuff has become unpopular. The elites will use moral superiority to win the new wars they provoke. Or nukes maybe.
A democratic nation cannot win the competition to lower costs with a dictatorship which treats its workers like slaves but that’s the competition that Wallstreet wanted - a race to the bottom in wages and the weakening of manufacturing capacity and increase in profits that came with it. Big corporations have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders not to their country, they should not control Washington but they do. Tariffs built up American manufacturing capacity before WWII and are the only way to restore it, but are they consistent with the globalist new world order philosophy? No one should care, it’s been a failure.
Too late to fix it. The plain fact is that Nixon surrendered to China. We're a colony. The consolidations aren't the problem. Like most colonies we make noises, but we know who's in charge.
Matt, I think that I'm going to have to unsubscribe because this sort of piece just gets under my skin and raises my blood pressure!! This. is. not. that. complicated! And, unfortunately, it just adds to the pile of scorn that I already have for our elected officials. If they could just do their damn job. But, yes, this will be another letter Richard Shelby (so old), Tommy Tuberville (wizard of the pigskin) and Robert Aderholdt can file in their "don't bother me, I'm fundraising" stack.
Neil Howe asserts that major change only happens in a fourth turning when confronted with major crisis. Maybe. It will be interesting - to say the least.
Well, considering that our Sec Def is fresh off the Board of Raytheon, what do you expect?
Maybe we ought to pay attention to this as well:
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/08/02/cannot-wait-groups-warn-democrats-not-let-stock-trading-ban-die
Frankly Matt, I don't much care if we are depleting our military stock - maybe that would be an incentive to stop provoking confrontations all over the planet - hmmm, let's not poke these folks, they might hit back and they are better stocked than we are - maybe that would keep us from sending all that stuff to Ukraine - keep it here in case we need it
What we should have been restocking was our strategic supply cache of PPE etc. for the pandemic - a cache we depleted after the flu epidemic some years ago which was never replaced - how's that stock now? Are we prepared for another "foe" - like this virus, that has killed more Americans than Russia or China and still hasn't been defeated ...
As for the "American System" outlined by Hamilton after the Revolutionary war - I don't think it was ALL about having enough industrial capacity to make weapons - it was about making our country as self-sufficient as possible - making enough to supply the American people with what we needed - what happened, it seems to me, was folks got greedy for overseas "markets", not just for trading for goods we needed and couldn't make ourselves - but for profit ... it became not about the health and strength of the American people, but about the "health and strength" of corporations measured in terms of profits, stock price and shareholder value .... and the chickens have come home to roost ....
Don't disagree with much of the Decline of Military article, but it should have included at least acknowledgment that Bill Perry TOLD the defense industrial leadership in 1993 at the famous "last supper" that they must consolidate if they wanted to survive.
"Holt went over the business strategy of U.S. defense contractors, noting their goal is to lowball contracts but keep control of intellectual property."
What about introducing a law that requires tax payer funded development to be in the public domain?
The UK has sth like this for research. All scientific publications funded by the taxpayer need to be published in open access journals.
The US had the largest manufacturing capability which it was able to switch over to weapons making, during WWII. That’s how the war was won, with the capacity to MAKE stuff. That capacity has been outsourced to an adversary. Making stuff has become unpopular. The elites will use moral superiority to win the new wars they provoke. Or nukes maybe.
A democratic nation cannot win the competition to lower costs with a dictatorship which treats its workers like slaves but that’s the competition that Wallstreet wanted - a race to the bottom in wages and the weakening of manufacturing capacity and increase in profits that came with it. Big corporations have a fiduciary duty to their shareholders not to their country, they should not control Washington but they do. Tariffs built up American manufacturing capacity before WWII and are the only way to restore it, but are they consistent with the globalist new world order philosophy? No one should care, it’s been a failure.
All this sadly increases the potential for a large scale nuclear conflict.
Too late to fix it. The plain fact is that Nixon surrendered to China. We're a colony. The consolidations aren't the problem. Like most colonies we make noises, but we know who's in charge.