Part Two - Wealth Redistribution in Times of War or the Threat of War

Lest we forget, a primer on capitalism.

MeanMesa takes a longer look at a suspiciously obscured reality.  This is the second of series of postings on illicit wealth redistribution in a free market system.

So long as the United States continues to consider itself a durable, lasting, modern super power -- a presumption already wobbling on one foot, blindfolded and drunk, teetering on an icy precipice of the cliff of reality, given the facts --  it will continue its military spending habits.

The F35 - $125,ooo,ooo - $140,000,000 Each

After working hard to create one of the most anti-intellectual states among taxpayers and voters in recent history, the gleeful mad hatters comprising the "F-35 military industrial junkies" are major players in the illicit wealth redistribution scheme.  A predictable product of a woefully failing educational system, all those "Muslim hating," hill billy bigot AM radio voters keep electing "purchasable" Senators and Congressmen as they mindlessly chase the promise of better jobs in patriotic weapons factories perched on their home town "stompin' grounds."

"By the way, these here paychecks is so good thet we ovah look thu' pollution."

It is a cruel, effectively treasonous, deception.  The only Americans prospering from the stinky scheme are in Washington, D.C., not the foggy valleys of Alabama and Mississippi.  It's nothing new.  From the dankest depths of the (1959) Cold War, we can catch a glimpse of the same tired story of corporate American colonialism in one of its earlier forms.

THE KINGSTON TRIO
"The Merry Minuet"

  (Sheldon Harnick, lyrics from the album The Hungry 'I' - 1959)

They're rioting in Africa. They're starving in Spain. 

There's hurricanes in Florida and Texas needs rain.
The whole world is festering with unhappy souls. 
The French hate the Germans. The Germans hate the Poles.
Italians hate Yugoslavs. South Africans hate the Dutch
and I don't like anybody very much!
But we can be tranquil and thankful and proud 
for man's been endowed with a mushroom shaped cloud.
And we know for certain that some lovely day 
someone will set the spark off and we will all be blown away.
They're rioting in Africa. There's strife in Iran. 

What nature doesn't do to us will be done by our fellow man.

 To listen to a couple of popular songs by the Kingston Trio, link here  (9 minutes)


 Now, we might consider this educational conspiracy and its dismal results exclusively in the simple context of bad schools, that is, somehow not directly involved in illicit wealth redistribution.  However, given the outcomes we now face, we can happily add this to the price we have paid as the schemes of the oligarchic class have gradually materialized in our everyday lives.  After all, should educational accomplishments and the level of being actually informed about events increase while fear levels subsided significantly among the voters, common sense might become suddenly resurgent to a troubling level, replacing the easy going of the presently, well controlled, mouth breathers who keep voting to finance this  national defense train wreck.

The outrage doesn't stop with this unsettling abstraction about being educated and informed, either.  Parked in the next stall are the perpetually reinforced fantasies about military procurement being, somehow, an effective mechanism for invention and innovation, not to mention a valid foundation for what's left of a manufacturing economy.

Of course, military requirements have always included some very fruitful  innovation, but seldom at the effective. comparative level of innovation and invention derived from such efforts when they are directed at domestic consumer product advances. Further, domestic inventions tend to have an "echo" effect on the national economy, creating vectors of subsequent economic growth beyond the factory walls where they were made.

Military innovation tends to have an "echo" effect on further military sector growth.  In the frame of illicit wealth redistribution, the money flows, but it flows back into more military spending rather than into more productive, technical cultural advances.

The definition of "military industrial sector profits" in the sense of legitimate increases to the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) metric of national economic growth becomes even more problematic.  The non-competitive nature of military industrial spending is a fundamentally inflationary outcome.  Oh sure, defense industry corporation "bid" on manufacturing and design projects, but the value of even the most qualified selection of bidders remains fundamentally synthetic.

We assign too much importance to getting a good price on something we don't actually need.  Aside from all the other negative effects, this paves the way for huge synthetic profits to flow to what are actually little more than hula-hoop factories.  Take a look at the following chart posted here compliments of Matt Haney, fB.   (data and image source)

The National Debt = $14 Tn. This "Shopping List" alone = $1/2 Tn

This rapacious military spending is a major source of the economic dilemma we presently face.  The worst problem is that the scheme is not limited to just the problem we see unfolding the chart.  Its roots descend through levels of unfortunate conditions, each one the product of another in a series of our national lack of due diligence when it comes to the maintenance of our democracy.

This outrageous spending is built on a remarkably stable "house of cards."

It is protected politically by a corrupt Congressional procurement system which, at the next lower level, is perpetuated by a massive fear mongering propaganda campaign which, at the next lower level, is made possible by a frightened, uninformed electorate which, at the next lower level, has been produced by failures in our public education.

It won't be a quick, painless remedy, but it will be necessary if we intend to continue living here.