Redistribution

Discussion
1

Military operations are the principle wealth redistribution program of the US government.

I've been reading my monthly journal of the military-industrial complex, looking for a different narrative that explains things in terms of relevant speaking points. Every month the journal is a jaw-dropping revelation of what we already see if we would "connect the dots".

But it is the narrative that connects the dots and the narratives are mostly set in stone.
It's how we see the constellation of events the way we are supposed to.
Keeping them set in stone is a job in itself.

To help with this job:

"Eisenhower School Seeking Business Executives for 2014 Class"

"Sponsored by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Industry Fellow Program at the Eisenhower School for National Security and Resource Strategy was developed in support of the school's vision of 'government and industry working closely together to ensure national security.'

Congress approved the first civilian corporate executives to attend the the school, formerly the Industrial College of the Armed Forces- in 1995.

Since then, it has received worldwide recognition as a premier business education program, and Congress has increased the number of available seats for industry to 20 per academic year."

"The typical candidate is one who has already been identified to have senior leadership potential, has 15 to 20 years of experience, and has demonstrated excellent business acumen."

So...if you think the military is about making you safer, you are wrong. It is about taking your money and giving it somebody else, here and all over the world. "Foreign aid" became an unpopular term, but the unpopularity of "foreign war" has been forgotten since FDR. Now it is an industry and it is the government's principle "jobs" program.

FDR had the WPA. Now we have DARPA.
FDR had CCC camps. Now we have Internment Camps.
FDR had Social Security. Now we have National Security.
FDR had the New Deal. We have the bad deal.

Not that military industry is all bad. Who am I to talk?

But it should be for defense and the people should have a healthy respect
for its threat to their liberty and their economic well being.

Even the defense industry is concerned about it.

2

The military-industrial complex is no different from the education complex, the
health card complex or any other govenment subsidy program. The recipients of
government money ALWAYS want to make everyone else think the expense is in the
public interest so that we won't look too closely at bloat and waste. As we all
know, when government gets involved involved in anything the focus inevitably
turns to maintaining the income and perks of the people receiving the money
rather than providing any needed or useful purpose.

Les

3

It is no different in that regard. But it is different in that the redistribution here has been curtailed in favor of redistribution to foreign recipients.

Essentially, "foreign aid" has gone from $50 billion to $500 billion. It serves US business with cash flow but the recipients of the "standard of living" are elsewhere.
US taxpayers are paying for building other nations for other people and owing $16 trillion for the privilege.

And not only that, but the "standard of living" they get from the military is a prison-police-state, like ours. This is making serious enemies. They like it less than we do. Imagine if the Chinese occupied the US and gave us their police-state. Certain elements would be reaching out to anyone who would helpdamage the Chinese as much as possible, as Bin Laden did to us.

These elements would have no interest in the "better life" the Chinese had to offer. They would be interested in the liberty to conduct their lives the way they saw fit.

4

Exactly.

I don't understand why people who just want to be left alone don't understand that other people want to be left alone, too.

Nina

5

It was Eisenhower who warned about the military-industrial complex!
How ironic they rechristened their school after him.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst306/documents/indust.html

Harland Harrison
LP of San Mateo County CA