[PAA-Discuss] Krugman's take .....some Comments ?

[ChasMauch at aol.com]

Bart,
 
I think the real problem shows clearly in the pie  charts of government 
spending put out by the war Resister's League  (see link below). Incredibly 
over half (54%) of the total goes to  present and past military. But that part 
of the budget is simply  untouchable - in fact it keeps growing every year - 
when there is no enemy in  sight except the totally bogus "war on terror" 
which is an intelligence, police,  and foreign policy problem and totally 
unwinnable by military means -  in fact such action makes it worse. 
 
This problem began back in the late 1930s when we were still  bogged down 
in the "Great Depression" - what really ended the depression was  when we 
began gearing up for WW II building tanks and battleships and bombers  and so 
on and millions went into the military and suddenly everyone had a job  and 
prosperity returned. Of course there was massive deficit spending but that  
was OK since it was a "matter of survival". But when the war was over 
everyone  was afraid the depression would return so they invented the cold war and 
our  economy has been basically on a war footing ever since.
 
So many people (both workers and capitalists) now have such a  vested 
interest in the military that it is hard to close any military  installation 
anywhere (no matter how obsolete and unnecessary) or eliminate any  weapons 
system (no matter how redundant and even unwanted by the military)  because it 
would cost jobs for the civilians who work there and supply all  the support 
functions. And if we really scaled down the military budget the  entire 
economy would collapse. Some of the money could be diverted to  health care, 
schools, etc that would benefit the entire society but that would  be 
"socialism" and the military industrial complex lobby would not even allow it  to be 
considered (witness the Baucus committee refusing to talk about single  
payer national health insurance).
 
So we continue down the road to hell without even the excuse  of having 
good intentions - such is the depth of corruption of our entire  political 
system. People are disgusted with the system - we see the rise of the  
teabaggers and other radical groups - it is reminiscent of the Weimar Republic  in 
Germany when people were angry and out of work and had lost all faith in the  
government and finally the storm troopers began to march - we know how that  
turned out. Could it happen here? As they say, don't ask a question if you  
aren't sure you want to know the answer - so I withdraw the  question.
 
Charlie
    
_http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm_ 
(http://www.warresisters.org/pages/piechart.htm) 
 
 
In a message dated 2/6/2010 5:34:17 A.M. Central Standard Time,  
bartboyce at sbcglobal.net writes:

Dear PAAers ,

I have taken the liberty to  repost a recent Krugman op-ed .

In reading this one , I get the  feeling that even very wise economists

like venerable Krugman  aren't really getting the true future of continued

lack of a  universal , single payer health care system, a refusal to  switch

better renewable, sustainable energy sources and most  importantly ,

overhauling our insane mititary War Machine economy  .

What do you think  ?
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