It's arguable whether there would be a net decline in overall employment if all weapons manufacturing was cancelled tomorrow and all weapons workers laid off. Every resource currently going into weapons is being taken away from other parts of the economy. Other parts of the economy are being starved of good tech workers, machinists, etc., and there is a nationwide shortage of steel and other metals that are being sucked up by the MIC. There have been studies of the economic impact of the MIC showing that every dollar spent on weapons procurement ends up being one less dollar of economic growth -- i.e., when military spending is low the economy grows faster than when military spending is high.
In short, it's arguable that, after a short disruption, that number of Americans unemployed if the M-I-C fell off the face of the earth tomorrow would be *ZERO*. That is, every person currently involved in the M-I-C could add something to the economy, and thus cause economic growth that employed others currently employed by the M-I-C, rather than being a drag on the economy which is what the M-I-C currently is. Every dollar of defense procurement spending takes resources out of the economy and shoves them down a black hole. Those resources, if returned to the economy, could be used to create far more economic growth than the M-I-C will ever contribute to the economy.
- Badtux the Economics Penguin
Thank you Badtux.
i saw war inc
didnt really like it
had its moments, but i think missed the mark
and how good can a film be if the best acting job is by hillary duff
Yeah, I'm not expecting a fabulous acting job out of Cusack because I don't imagine that this part is really him, it's just to make a point.
Badtux, it would be HORRIBLE for the economy if there was no M-I-C, especially the handgun part of it. Who would fill our jails, providing sweet, sweet employment for the prison guards' union (especially that powerful one there in Cali. How are they faring with the budget cuts, eh?) What would hospitals like S.F. General do without gunshot victims? Have pity for the funeral industry, too!
Just goes to show there's no point taking business advice from a penguin, unless it's the one in Batman movies...
Bukko, you're thinking of the Prison-Industrial-Complex, which is a different thing altogether. The reason California has a budget deficit is because California spends more on prisons than on education. If California was a nation, California would lock up more people than all but three other nations on the planet. And the prisoners don't just sit in their cells, prison industries are a major profit center for the politically connected corporations that have obtained those contracts -- we criticize China for using slave labor in their prisons to make cheap goods, yet California's prison system exports license plates to El Salvador because the 30 cents per day paid to California prisoners to make license plates is less than even the $3 dollar per day Salvadorian minimum wage.
Anyhow, here's my deal. Prison systems don't add anything to an economy. They're very expensive to run, and the output of prison industries doesn't come anywhere near paying for them. So seems the logical thing to do would be to keep prisons for those people who have to be segregated from society because they're Bad People(tm) who would otherwise harm others, and if you have stuff like, say, some guy growing some mary jane in his basement for his own use... well, who gets hurt there?
Then all that wealth could be used to build factories and stuff that actually produce wealth, since it wouldn't be disappearing into the black hole of unproductive prison walls. And there would be plenty of jobs for the people who no longer are prison guards, building cars and trains and windmills and such. But I forget, I'm making sense, and that's verbotten in today's political world, which is all about talking points and caveman grunts "tough on crime! Ugh! Me tough! Ugh! Me hit bad man on head with club! Ugh!". Caveman grunts. And so the devolution of American society continues. Devo was right, sad to say!
- Badtux the Economics Penguin
Badtux and Bukko 
I love you guys, you have wicked senses of humor
Although, Badtux, I read some article somewhere that said that California spends 83 cents for prisons for every one dollar it spends on education. I think Arnie will fix that with his education cuts, eh?
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