The size of direct US military spending is appaling - given all the other national priorities that exist (e.g., replacing the nation's failing infrastructure like bridges and water systems). But that number doesn't even include the billions being spent on the 'intelligence' agencies and their constellations of private contractors.
It looks as if we are headed, if not already there, to the economic model of the old Soviet Union: no bread on the shelves but plenty of new weapons systems and total surveillance of the population.
Nor does it include the amount of money spent on Warrantless Surveillance of US Citizens, Censorship, or Propaganda. Or the amount of money spent transforming America into a highly militarized proto-Police State.
It's more than war that's making us poor. It's also the rape of the middle class. Tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations that put the tax burden on the working class. Offshoring high paying jobs leaving only low paying service jobs for the working class. Government cuts to education forcing students to borrow more money than be paid back in half a life time. Skyrocketing housing, food and healthcare costs that the middle class must pay without any subsidies.
The poor have nothing to take, so they are left alone. The rich own the politicians who make laws enabling them to avoid paying their share. So that leaves only the middle class to carry the burden.
So you are absolutely correct, war is making us poor, but it is not war alone. And bear in mind, war is only a symptom of the problem and not the cause. If you are looking for a single cause, it is the avarice of the rich - for whom war is merely another means of getting richer.
True, But our generation is paying the debt service now (which is approximately $750 billion yearly).
$750 billion! That's one helluva lot of money. It's almost as much as we are spending on war. Just think of the good things that could be accomplished with that amount of money. Instead, it's just going into the pockets of the rich. Why? Because the government couldn't extract the money it needed from the middle class and instead of taxing the rich, it borrowed the money from them (with a promise to pay it back in the future, with interest). That's what we are paying now.
Its important to point out the ramifications for the future, but we should also point out that's it's costing us dearly right now - and continuing down this road will only get worse.
But remember we have a unique ability in that our debt is payable in our debt. This means that US debt held by other countries cannot be pressed upon the US to force it to change its ways. If China, for example, turns in $1 billion in US Treasury bills demanding payment, it will be paid in dollars, which is nothing more than trading long term US debt for short term US debt. This is what allows our debt to rise to any amount.
For the world to break this hold we have on it another currency must replace the dollar (China is trying) or other countries would have to dump long term US debt for dollars thereby creating tremendous dollar inflation, but this would hurt them as much as it would the US.
Long ago, the gold standard held the US to account along with all other countries, but those days are long gone. We leveraged our tremendous power after WW2 to dictate financial terms to the world and the world had no choice but to accept. When Nixon dumped the gold standard for the dollar, the world could do nothing but accept it.
1. The debt can grow to any amount but the debt service grows with it; and the debt service is paid out of our taxes and deprives us of needed domestic investments.
2. Replacement of the dollar with another currency may well happen as other countries lose confidence in it. As you say, China is trying and already there are some countries starting to trade in renminbi.
3. If inflation takes off, those countries holding our debt will want to dump it ASAP which will only exacerbate the inflation.
No doubt about it, the system that has been of such benefit to the US (it is an addiction) cannot go on indefinitely. Brazil's president has said he dreams about the day when the dollar is overthrown and no doubt others share that view. It will happen and will be catastrophic, but it is impossible to say when and until it does happen, the debt can climb.
But the US addiction is only a part of an even larger addiction to capitalism. We can't go on as we are but nobody is offering an alternative. Addicts know that they cannot keep on upping the dose, but they do. So on we go.
Great intro Bill. I think part of the problem in getting Americans to give up support for war is "Hollywood", or the entertainment industry in general. Much of it is focused on glamorizing war and casting it in a "good us" vs. "evil them" terms. We haven't had any anti-war movies, documentaries or TV shows for a very long time, and that is by design. The entertainment industry is a big part of the propaganda system that the wealthy merchants of death have built over the last 3 decades. Before that, there actually were some anti-war movies that sprang out of the anti-war movement in the 1970s. No more, now it is all just pro-war propaganda.
One reason there are no anti-War movies, documentaries, or tv shows in this country is because there is no anti-War Movement in this country.
Nor has there been one ever since America's "Forever War" after 9/11 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, etc. kicked off.
Nor is there one now with America's Wars in Ukraine or Palestine. Nor will there be one when the Deep State gets its long planned, programmed, and in-process War with China.
I am not sure that there would be any effect of an anti-war movement on Hollywood's war pimping. The war-pimping is due to several factors that have been written about extensively. One is financial, if you let the DoD write or re-write your script, you get massive financing and free military hardware to use in your films. Second, the people in Hollywood (and entertainment in general) are true-blue Blue Team denizens and the Blue team is now the bigger war party. Third, the propaganda machine that poses as the Fourth Estate is keeping lots of people on board with the war machine, and suppressing any minor anti-war sentiment. There are probably other reasons as well, but the basic idea is that the criminal donor class has captured all aspects of our society, including "Hollywood", and that means no anti-war movies or TV shows.
Excellent points, John. But one thing different today is the presence of very real, active, and readily available Alternatives to that so-called Fourth Estate.
Any American who knows ~ and thus believes ~ Only what the MSM tells her or him about anything does that by personal choice, At least as things stand at present.
But with the growing affection that this Government and its Masters have for censorship, the availability of non-MSM News and Views could become increasingly unavailable.
Yeah, they are going to try and censor all alternative narratives (especially since their own narratives are feeble as hell). Speaking of alternatives, I assume everyone here tunes into Judge Napolitano's show every week day, he always has excellent guests on. What I like best is that the left and right get together and agree on just about everything they discuss. That's what we need lots more of right now.
Your historical presentation is not going far enough. America “needs to learn the word peace again?” Really? When did Americans really know the concept of peace over a significant period of time? My understanding of American history tells me that war has been and is the raison d’etre of the USA since the 1820s. Frederick Jackson Turner’s FRONTIER THESIS is an admission that the country became what it is by conquest of the continent and the murder of the native peoples. You know as well as I do that this country has fought more wars than any other country in the last two hundred years. Isn’t it time to admit the fact that war is the essential characteristic of the U.S. That the nation spends more today than ever before is a fact as is the deception of the population about the value of this extreme expenditure.
Hi Karl: It's about a 400-word foreword, if I can use that as an excuse. Brevity is everything. People should read the book for answers, not my foreword.
I apologize if my reaction came across as criticism. No excuse needed!!! I do appreciate very much your honesty. I just feel that Americans, even progressives, are thinking in terms of a beneficial American exceptionalism which is pure fantasy. I hope the book will be read. The sad fact is that far too many people won’t. So, keep up the good work you do.
You're right, Karl. But I think the key is that no war has seriously damaged the US. I can't think of any other country in history that has had our ability to war without serious consequences to the economy. We war and we have business as usual. Israel has been a gold mine for our arms manufacturers but even there we can gift them with impunity as has been done with Gaza.
To put it bluntly, war is never a problem for the US and our government is so used to this that it thinks nothing of pushing Russia to any extent, risking nuclear war that certainly would bring the US to its senses at the cost of total destruction. If a child has repeatedly played with fire and has never been burned, why would the child stop doing so even if an adult would warn that the house might burn down?
John Rachel concludes his Introduction to WAR IS MAKING US POOR! Militarism Is Destroying the U.S. as follows...:
This evisceration of the American Dream by an out-of-control military was anticipated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He sounded the alarm in his farewell address as president in 1961:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
We are now experiencing the realization of President Eisenhower’s ominous warning: the transformation of our entire society, the corporate capture of our economy and government institutions, the marginalization of our individual values, the inversion of our national priorities, and the razing of our democracy. This self-sabotaging lunacy is driven by a combination of ravenous profit-seeking by the military-industrial complex (MIC), and the imperial ambitions of a cabal of delusional sociopaths at the power centers of the Deep State, who have, without ever consulting the people, decided the U.S. is chosen by destiny to rule the entire world.
The impact of this military madness is far-reaching and bottomless.
It eventually bodes the total impoverishment of the U.S. as a nation – economically, socially, morally, spiritually – and the complete bankrupting of America and its citizens.
Yes, folks … WAR IS MAKING US POOR!
This is not just a clever meme. Because with deadly accuracy, it identifies and indicts the central cause of the atrophy, decline, degeneration, the systemic sickness which is destroying our country. This viral pathogen shows no sign of abating. In fact, it is accelerating. This book will look at where exactly we are at in the advancing stages of this destructive pathology. The sincere hope is that people will wake up and put an end to this insanity before it puts an end to us.
Note: A companion website focused on waking people up and ending the insanity is at https://peacedividend.us/ .
Just reading the Kindle Special Introduction, the Forewords, and the author's Introduction, and then scan reading the rest of Mr Rachel's book, i believe that this has the potential to be a Thomas Paine';s COMMON SENSE for America in 2024. Thank You for sharing it, Bill.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like, smirks the man behind the podium.
Don’t trust your lying eyes, or your lying ears, or your lying mind, or your lying heart.
Silence that part of you which sees. Which feels. Which knows. Which cares.
Stomp it down until it stops moving. Pour concrete over it if you have to.
Stop feeling the feelings that you are feeling. Those feelings have not been authorized by the Israeli government.
We are waiting for the IDF to investigate itself to determine if your feelings are permissible. Until the results of that ongoing investigation, your feelings are antisemitic.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. The IDF will tell you when it is doing a genocide.
It helps if you don’t think about it too hard. Think about something else instead, like housewives in conservative homes do when their husbands climb on top of them.
Think about celebrities and Donald Trump, or that latest TV series you’re binging. Relax. Go to your happy place. It will be over in a minute.
Strangle that sacred spark within yourself that cannot accept what it is seeing. Grab it by the throat and squeeze until it is as dead as a Palestinian child.
Pour concrete over its dead body and then have a few drinks with your friends in congress. Are you not journalists? That is what journalists do.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. Forget what you’ve seen. Forget what you know.
Relax. Don’t struggle. Think of the beach. Daddy’s almost finished. Let the amnesia sink in, and float away.
Fareed Zacharia’s GPS showed this image on CNN yesterday. It’s really quite the amazing departure from past practice of hiding unpleasant Truths and portends to a Day of Reckoning for Israel.
It's the results of a Survey questioning 24,000 people in 31 Countries on Autocracy vs Democracy and seeing the company Israel keeps. I'm sure some of those 24,000 people would have included the US in the results.
Money making from exports, the driving force for our present follies abroad, has a long history. Consider the following (and think of what Smedley Butler said some years later).
"...in 1907 Woodrow Wilson said in a lecture at Columbia University. 'Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process...the doors of the nations which are closed must be battered down' In 1914, Wilson said he supported the 'righteous conquest of foreign markets' "
This from Howard Zinn's, "The 20th Century" a part of his "A People's History of the United States"
Thank you for introducing us to John's book.
The size of direct US military spending is appaling - given all the other national priorities that exist (e.g., replacing the nation's failing infrastructure like bridges and water systems). But that number doesn't even include the billions being spent on the 'intelligence' agencies and their constellations of private contractors.
It looks as if we are headed, if not already there, to the economic model of the old Soviet Union: no bread on the shelves but plenty of new weapons systems and total surveillance of the population.
Nor does it include the amount of money spent on Warrantless Surveillance of US Citizens, Censorship, or Propaganda. Or the amount of money spent transforming America into a highly militarized proto-Police State.
It's more than war that's making us poor. It's also the rape of the middle class. Tax cuts for the wealthy and the corporations that put the tax burden on the working class. Offshoring high paying jobs leaving only low paying service jobs for the working class. Government cuts to education forcing students to borrow more money than be paid back in half a life time. Skyrocketing housing, food and healthcare costs that the middle class must pay without any subsidies.
The poor have nothing to take, so they are left alone. The rich own the politicians who make laws enabling them to avoid paying their share. So that leaves only the middle class to carry the burden.
So you are absolutely correct, war is making us poor, but it is not war alone. And bear in mind, war is only a symptom of the problem and not the cause. If you are looking for a single cause, it is the avarice of the rich - for whom war is merely another means of getting richer.
Yes. And a $34 trillion deficit is pushing the cost to future generations to pay.
True, But our generation is paying the debt service now (which is approximately $750 billion yearly).
$750 billion! That's one helluva lot of money. It's almost as much as we are spending on war. Just think of the good things that could be accomplished with that amount of money. Instead, it's just going into the pockets of the rich. Why? Because the government couldn't extract the money it needed from the middle class and instead of taxing the rich, it borrowed the money from them (with a promise to pay it back in the future, with interest). That's what we are paying now.
Its important to point out the ramifications for the future, but we should also point out that's it's costing us dearly right now - and continuing down this road will only get worse.
Yes, I agree.
But remember we have a unique ability in that our debt is payable in our debt. This means that US debt held by other countries cannot be pressed upon the US to force it to change its ways. If China, for example, turns in $1 billion in US Treasury bills demanding payment, it will be paid in dollars, which is nothing more than trading long term US debt for short term US debt. This is what allows our debt to rise to any amount.
For the world to break this hold we have on it another currency must replace the dollar (China is trying) or other countries would have to dump long term US debt for dollars thereby creating tremendous dollar inflation, but this would hurt them as much as it would the US.
Long ago, the gold standard held the US to account along with all other countries, but those days are long gone. We leveraged our tremendous power after WW2 to dictate financial terms to the world and the world had no choice but to accept. When Nixon dumped the gold standard for the dollar, the world could do nothing but accept it.
1. The debt can grow to any amount but the debt service grows with it; and the debt service is paid out of our taxes and deprives us of needed domestic investments.
2. Replacement of the dollar with another currency may well happen as other countries lose confidence in it. As you say, China is trying and already there are some countries starting to trade in renminbi.
3. If inflation takes off, those countries holding our debt will want to dump it ASAP which will only exacerbate the inflation.
No doubt about it, the system that has been of such benefit to the US (it is an addiction) cannot go on indefinitely. Brazil's president has said he dreams about the day when the dollar is overthrown and no doubt others share that view. It will happen and will be catastrophic, but it is impossible to say when and until it does happen, the debt can climb.
But the US addiction is only a part of an even larger addiction to capitalism. We can't go on as we are but nobody is offering an alternative. Addicts know that they cannot keep on upping the dose, but they do. So on we go.
Great intro Bill. I think part of the problem in getting Americans to give up support for war is "Hollywood", or the entertainment industry in general. Much of it is focused on glamorizing war and casting it in a "good us" vs. "evil them" terms. We haven't had any anti-war movies, documentaries or TV shows for a very long time, and that is by design. The entertainment industry is a big part of the propaganda system that the wealthy merchants of death have built over the last 3 decades. Before that, there actually were some anti-war movies that sprang out of the anti-war movement in the 1970s. No more, now it is all just pro-war propaganda.
One reason there are no anti-War movies, documentaries, or tv shows in this country is because there is no anti-War Movement in this country.
Nor has there been one ever since America's "Forever War" after 9/11 in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, etc. kicked off.
Nor is there one now with America's Wars in Ukraine or Palestine. Nor will there be one when the Deep State gets its long planned, programmed, and in-process War with China.
I am not sure that there would be any effect of an anti-war movement on Hollywood's war pimping. The war-pimping is due to several factors that have been written about extensively. One is financial, if you let the DoD write or re-write your script, you get massive financing and free military hardware to use in your films. Second, the people in Hollywood (and entertainment in general) are true-blue Blue Team denizens and the Blue team is now the bigger war party. Third, the propaganda machine that poses as the Fourth Estate is keeping lots of people on board with the war machine, and suppressing any minor anti-war sentiment. There are probably other reasons as well, but the basic idea is that the criminal donor class has captured all aspects of our society, including "Hollywood", and that means no anti-war movies or TV shows.
Excellent points, John. But one thing different today is the presence of very real, active, and readily available Alternatives to that so-called Fourth Estate.
Any American who knows ~ and thus believes ~ Only what the MSM tells her or him about anything does that by personal choice, At least as things stand at present.
But with the growing affection that this Government and its Masters have for censorship, the availability of non-MSM News and Views could become increasingly unavailable.
Yeah, they are going to try and censor all alternative narratives (especially since their own narratives are feeble as hell). Speaking of alternatives, I assume everyone here tunes into Judge Napolitano's show every week day, he always has excellent guests on. What I like best is that the left and right get together and agree on just about everything they discuss. That's what we need lots more of right now.
LOTS more of... .
Great intro.
"Ethnic cleansing" is too sterile for the sins we pay for in Palestine.
Your historical presentation is not going far enough. America “needs to learn the word peace again?” Really? When did Americans really know the concept of peace over a significant period of time? My understanding of American history tells me that war has been and is the raison d’etre of the USA since the 1820s. Frederick Jackson Turner’s FRONTIER THESIS is an admission that the country became what it is by conquest of the continent and the murder of the native peoples. You know as well as I do that this country has fought more wars than any other country in the last two hundred years. Isn’t it time to admit the fact that war is the essential characteristic of the U.S. That the nation spends more today than ever before is a fact as is the deception of the population about the value of this extreme expenditure.
Hi Karl: It's about a 400-word foreword, if I can use that as an excuse. Brevity is everything. People should read the book for answers, not my foreword.
I apologize if my reaction came across as criticism. No excuse needed!!! I do appreciate very much your honesty. I just feel that Americans, even progressives, are thinking in terms of a beneficial American exceptionalism which is pure fantasy. I hope the book will be read. The sad fact is that far too many people won’t. So, keep up the good work you do.
You're right, Karl. But I think the key is that no war has seriously damaged the US. I can't think of any other country in history that has had our ability to war without serious consequences to the economy. We war and we have business as usual. Israel has been a gold mine for our arms manufacturers but even there we can gift them with impunity as has been done with Gaza.
To put it bluntly, war is never a problem for the US and our government is so used to this that it thinks nothing of pushing Russia to any extent, risking nuclear war that certainly would bring the US to its senses at the cost of total destruction. If a child has repeatedly played with fire and has never been burned, why would the child stop doing so even if an adult would warn that the house might burn down?
I'm glad you think war is so good for us.
John Rachel concludes his Introduction to WAR IS MAKING US POOR! Militarism Is Destroying the U.S. as follows...:
This evisceration of the American Dream by an out-of-control military was anticipated by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He sounded the alarm in his farewell address as president in 1961:
“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.”
We are now experiencing the realization of President Eisenhower’s ominous warning: the transformation of our entire society, the corporate capture of our economy and government institutions, the marginalization of our individual values, the inversion of our national priorities, and the razing of our democracy. This self-sabotaging lunacy is driven by a combination of ravenous profit-seeking by the military-industrial complex (MIC), and the imperial ambitions of a cabal of delusional sociopaths at the power centers of the Deep State, who have, without ever consulting the people, decided the U.S. is chosen by destiny to rule the entire world.
The impact of this military madness is far-reaching and bottomless.
It eventually bodes the total impoverishment of the U.S. as a nation – economically, socially, morally, spiritually – and the complete bankrupting of America and its citizens.
Yes, folks … WAR IS MAKING US POOR!
This is not just a clever meme. Because with deadly accuracy, it identifies and indicts the central cause of the atrophy, decline, degeneration, the systemic sickness which is destroying our country. This viral pathogen shows no sign of abating. In fact, it is accelerating. This book will look at where exactly we are at in the advancing stages of this destructive pathology. The sincere hope is that people will wake up and put an end to this insanity before it puts an end to us.
Note: A companion website focused on waking people up and ending the insanity is at https://peacedividend.us/ .
Just reading the Kindle Special Introduction, the Forewords, and the author's Introduction, and then scan reading the rest of Mr Rachel's book, i believe that this has the potential to be a Thomas Paine';s COMMON SENSE for America in 2024. Thank You for sharing it, Bill.
'This Obvious Genocide Is Not What It Looks Like'
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like, smirks the man behind the podium.
Don’t trust your lying eyes, or your lying ears, or your lying mind, or your lying heart.
Silence that part of you which sees. Which feels. Which knows. Which cares.
Stomp it down until it stops moving. Pour concrete over it if you have to.
Stop feeling the feelings that you are feeling. Those feelings have not been authorized by the Israeli government.
We are waiting for the IDF to investigate itself to determine if your feelings are permissible. Until the results of that ongoing investigation, your feelings are antisemitic.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. The IDF will tell you when it is doing a genocide.
It helps if you don’t think about it too hard. Think about something else instead, like housewives in conservative homes do when their husbands climb on top of them.
Think about celebrities and Donald Trump, or that latest TV series you’re binging. Relax. Go to your happy place. It will be over in a minute.
Strangle that sacred spark within yourself that cannot accept what it is seeing. Grab it by the throat and squeeze until it is as dead as a Palestinian child.
Pour concrete over its dead body and then have a few drinks with your friends in congress. Are you not journalists? That is what journalists do.
This obvious genocide is not what it looks like. Forget what you’ve seen. Forget what you know.
Relax. Don’t struggle. Think of the beach. Daddy’s almost finished. Let the amnesia sink in, and float away.
https://www.caitlinjohnst.one/p/this-obvious-genocide-is-not-what
Fareed Zacharia’s GPS showed this image on CNN yesterday. It’s really quite the amazing departure from past practice of hiding unpleasant Truths and portends to a Day of Reckoning for Israel.
It's the results of a Survey questioning 24,000 people in 31 Countries on Autocracy vs Democracy and seeing the company Israel keeps. I'm sure some of those 24,000 people would have included the US in the results.
https://rayjc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fareed-cnn-2.jpg
Money making from exports, the driving force for our present follies abroad, has a long history. Consider the following (and think of what Smedley Butler said some years later).
"...in 1907 Woodrow Wilson said in a lecture at Columbia University. 'Concessions obtained by financiers must be safeguarded by ministers of state, even if the sovereignty of unwilling nations be outraged in the process...the doors of the nations which are closed must be battered down' In 1914, Wilson said he supported the 'righteous conquest of foreign markets' "
This from Howard Zinn's, "The 20th Century" a part of his "A People's History of the United States"
I’m going to be coming out with a “course” which among other things supports the obvious observations you’ve made in your article.
OK, you convinced me. I just placed an order for a copy from Amazon.