1. Military spending is a lousy job creator. US government revenues to five major defense contractors rose 10% between 2006 and 2011, from $101 billion to $113 billion. But their overall employee count declined by over 18,000, a 3% drop. Does that mean we should cut weapons spending if we want more jobs? Or does it mean weapons manufacturers are job destroyers, not job creators as they claim? Click here for the source.
Other arguments about jobs:
- The Pentagon budget isn’t a jobs program. We should spend what we need to defend ourselves and nothing more.
- If you want to create jobs, you can create twice as many per dollar by investing in education, and one and a half times as many by investing in healthcare, transportation, or clean energy. Click here for the study.
2. Shaky assumptions about military spending: This great piece published by North Carolina Peace Action’s Betsy Crites in the Durham Herald-Sun offers online activists an excellent set of talking points for your blogging, emails to your elected representatives, or letters to the editor.
3. Runaway military spending hurts us at home:
Under the Budget Control Act passed last August, if Congress keeps pushing money at the Pentagon vital needed social programs will be cut, including nutrition, education, housing, job training and health care for the poor.
Since 2001, the Pentagon budget, including the wars, has grown almost three times as fast as appropriations for domestic programs. What suffered? A “safety net” for millions of Americans. Job training, children’s mental health, substance abuse treatment, home heating assistance for the poor, community development funds and grants for adult education are some of the programs that were cut from 2010 to 2012.
Wars and runaway military spending have weakened our domestic institutions, sacrificed lives of U.S. citizens including our soldiers, and brought great suffering to people in other nations.
Runaway military spending deprives our states and cities of the funds they need to ensure that all of their residents have access to adequate food, shelter, education and health care.