MLK Jr. Day
In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a powerful speech on three evils of society: war, poverty, and racism. These evils rings true today like they did in 1967. The Vietnam War may be over, but there is a war in the far East of Europe that has global consequences, which seems to affect the disadvantaged more than the powers that be. In 2021, the planet spent more on military and defense than at any time in the past — $2 trillion. Preemptive preparations are being made for a war that doesn’t even exist yet. Japan and the U.S. are cozying up defensively to “prepare” for a war with China. “Prepare” assumes the war is inevitable.
Billions of dollars are invested into defense every single year. The U.S. invests more in its military than the next five countries put together, including China and Russia. The U.S. isn’t involved in a direct war. Though, it’s been supplying Ukraine with military capacities during the time of Ukraine’s war with Russia, and supplying many other countries with military weapons: including Saudi Arabia and Israel.
War makes money. Defense contractors make a killing during times of war and the people fortunate enough to invest in these companies see high dividends as well. Profiting off war and bloodshed is the consequence of the society we live in. Who doesn’t profit from war? The people who lay down their lives for the cause and the civilians who get caught in the crossfire. It truly is an evil society. This society will support any cause as long as there are dividends to be made at the expense of the less fortunate.
Money that is spent on a saturated defense budget could be used to invest in public education, health care, housing, infrastructure, water, and etc… Unfortunately, these types of investments aren’t attractive to the investor because the profits aren’t there. It’s “too expensive”, some politicians and investors like to claim. Providing people with necessary goods and services shouldn’t be about making money. It should be about providing people a dignified life. A life they can be proud to live without the fear of feeling unsupported by their state. We have moved from spending money on wars to spending money “preparing” and “investing” in wars that drastically affect people living in poverty more than the “leaders” preparing and warmongering.
On this holiday, remember the violence of war. Remember who is hurt by war and who profits.
“Say a war, this way of settling differences is not just.”
-MLK Jr.
You'd probably really like the book War is a Racket by Smedley Butler (quick and cheap read - can get it from a vet book publisher here if you're interested: https://deadreckoningco.com/collections/books/products/book-war-is-a-racket).
Agree generally. I don't think anyone likes the business of war, but the alternatives aren't feasible.
1. Government designs and manufactures weapon systems. Never would happen. Gov has been relying on for profit companies since before the first world war. They just don't have the capacity to do it and frankly that's probably a good thing. For profit business gives capitalism a chance to work at its best form - provide jobs with competitive wages and add economic value as a whole. Government is also notoriously slow and pace of innovation would have left us in the dust a long time ago had we not done this. Which leads to the second point.
2. I don't think we'd be having this conversation today had the US not taken an aggressive stance about where we were going to stand in the world. The defense numbers are no doubt big (I think it'd be helpful for context if you showed what the rest of the budget looked like because that number would scare anyone and isn't a fair comparison), but I think the alternative puts the safety of the American people in jeopardy. Would we be almost as safe with less - maybe? I'm not lining up to find out.