> Spreading defense contracts across congressional districts, a practice known in Washington as “political engineering,” also needs to end. Lockheed, for instance, claims that the F-35 program has created jobs in 45 states. According to conventional wisdom, it’s this reality that makes the Pentagon too big to fail. Though seldom noted, similar money put into non-military funding like infrastructure or clean energy almost invariably proves to be a greater job creator than the military version of the same. https://tomdispatch.com/why-the-pentagon-budget-never-goes-down/ @taiyo
@taiyo At first it surprised me that the military, the actual professionals, oppose a a lot of the very expensive high-tech projects. But things the latest generation fighter jets, and the very dangerous (for the Marines who fly in research projects like) the Osprey, are funded because the parts factories are strategically located in the districts of key political figures. These high-tech projects are the result of "political engineering": locating the various factories in important congressional districts.
@taiyo Another nickname (or phrase?) for the F-45 could be the evolutionary deadend of political engineering. It's a shame that "political engineering" didn't end with the Osprey: I read somewhere that the Marines don't even want it but the Osprey has bipartisan support, like fighter jets, because the parts are made in factories located in the congressional districst of both Democrats and Republicans...
@taiyo Your post(toot?) made me think of this article about how Trump and the people around him may turn on each other: > Plotters and schemers such as Musk, Kennedy Jr. or Jeff Bezos don’t hang around with a psychotic and delirious old man in diapers because it’s fun or because they’re all in the same literature of the Constitution book club. > They are there because they smell blood in the water—and the chance to take over the U.S. government as if it were yet another subsidiary on their family office org chart. https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/11/08/trump-ii-a-pre-mortem/.