gotta stop the TAX-PAYER FUNDED defense contractor gravy train sooner or later. The sooner its addressed the cheaper the transformation will be. Are you saying that since it will be painful, we need to just avoid it?
No, I've never said that I have a problem with reasonable cuts to defense, Dot Com...all I'm pointing out is that
if you're worried about the unemployment numbers then you'd best understand that cutting defense by 50% like was suggested is going to put tens of thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of people out of work and those jobs that will be disappearing are the high paid Middle Class jobs that everyone is so worried about us losing. Be careful what you wish for because I don't think you'd like the result.
As I've said here many times I'm in favor of across the board cuts to EVERY part of government because I honestly feel that every part of government is rife with waste and inefficiency.
Now t
hat is a very perceptive observtion, Oldstyle.
You are exactly correct.
FWIW,
Kensyian economic theory agrees with you on this point 100%.
If the US federal government allows those across-the-board cuts in spending, then yes, the military will reduce-in-force a significant number of personnel and the resulting unemployment AND the aggregate loss of that personnel's incomes WILL be still more drag on the marco-economy.
Want to hear something really interesting?
John Kenyes noted that the BEST KENSYIAN SPENDING possible was spending money ON THE MILITARY.
Why the military?
Because the the spending is not consumer goods, ergo, that spending does NOT pervert the normal consumer markets but it DOES put more money into the hands of the consumers who are building up that military.
Ironic, no?
The Pentagon's BEST FRIENDS are Kensyian economists.