War and Jobs

[Angry Dragon]

I have been thinking lately, and yes it has given me a headache.

There are no jobs, people want the wars to end. When all these
National Guard warriors come back to their old jobs, where are the people
doing those jobs now going to go??

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. Not to worry. The Pentagon has a limitless number of bogeymen to insure never-ending wars.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[RandomThoughts]

2. If you can afford to pay and feed them at war overseas.

Why would the money not be available for same thing here?

You are thinking within broken demand production imbalance. Every overseas soldier could be moved to America, and still paid the same wage to build highways and schools, and it would be the exact same dollars.

So to answer your question, the money saved from not spending on military can be invested in new industry, and creating items that people need for education and health care, and many other works projects.

It could be used for a tax cut so private sector would do that, but that is not what the private sector does, it spends money where there is profit, not something needed to be done, and letting profit direct the direction of society leads to some problems.

So you either give the money to people in foodstamps, then their spending decides production by pure democracy
Or government pays for programs that are needed by grants and investments in start ups in those sectors, and building or paying for health and schooling.
Or you let the private sector find a market that makes them the most money by pushing consumerism (since demand is below production) or by creating non working, or sectors that do nothing but shave or create money from nothing.

[Angry Dragon]

3. Yes you could do all that

but that is not the way it is right now.......
So all you do is increase unemployment

[NNN0LHI]

4. We could put them all to work in the factories that aren't here any more

Yea, thats the ticket.

Don

[Angry Dragon]

5. The factories are there

they just have plywood over the windows



or they are overseas

[jwirr]

6. That of course is going to be one of the problems. But with the money

saved from war they could be put to work doing almost anything that we need done.

[Angry Dragon]

7. And the republicans are going to go along with that??

Can't even get unemployment from them now

[jwirr]

8. Of course not. But we can still say how it should be.

[Angry Dragon]

11. If we playing the "How it should be" game

I would like to see all the idiot republicans in work camps
having to ask the government if they can eat.
Having to ask if they can see the doctor if they don't feel good.
With a warden that is hard of hearing

[Taitertots]

9. We just have to take the money they would otherwise be getting...

and spend it on productive things which benefit Americans.

[Angry Dragon]

15. That means cutting the defense budget

I think the republicans would put up a fight about that

[Taitertots]

16. The defense budget should be cut

Let the republicans try to fight it. We should be fighting them about this.

[Angry Dragon]

17. I agree

[lib2DaBone]

10. We don't need war.. we need to rebuild this country....

There is an estimated $3 Trillion in repairs that need to be made to roads, bridges, schools, water, electric, rail systems. (And that estimate was over 5 years ago)

Even HALF the money squandered on TARP and Too Big To Fail.. (if spent on infrastructure)... would have created 5 milllion new jobs in the U.S., instantly!

The Plutocrats and the Elite don't have a clue what to do. It's very plain to be seen by most people that we need to get out of the war business and move into the future. However.. the Fat Cat War MOnger and the Fed are not going to go quietly into the night...

[Angry Dragon]

14. You will not get any argument from me

[social_critic]

12. Returning soldiers don't take jobs from people

They usually stay in the service, or they're wounded. The ones who do resign the service are just part of the general incoming labor pool.

The national guardsmen coming back go to their old jobs, but they are rotated, so another bunch goes out.

The key is to remember a large portion of the money spent on these overseas wars and bases is wasted. We could afford a much larger army if they stayed home, training.

[Angry Dragon]

13. If you read my post I said National Guard

they go back to their civilian jobs so replacing the ones doing their jobs
while they are off fighting