Power and Harmony Part 3: Rationalizing Global Markets and US Military Spending
Taking into account some of the arguments made by Devil’s Advocate in response to my previous post, I’d like to expand on some of my original points as well as clear up a few inconsistencies and misunderstandings that seem to have emerged in this exchange. I’ll return to the question of defense spending and America’s geostrategic position in a moment, but I’d like first to clear the debate of some straw arguments that Devil’s Advocate makes, likely due to my incomplete exposition of some of my original ideas.
In disputing my diagnosis of likely causes of twenty-first century instability, Devil’s Advocate makes the following argument:
Mr. Eckel attributes 21st century instability to “poor resource management, unresolved tensions between political institutions and political identity, [and] governments that are unresponsive to the needs of their people.” The exact opposite in fact is true: The instability in the world is directly caused by governments that attempt to manage their resources and economies (Pre-1995 India, Soviet Union, Zimbabwe, North Korea, Cambodia, Indonesia, Maoist China, Vietnam, etc.) Planned economies create much more instability than ones that rely on the free market and capitalism.
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating the reintroduction of central planning as the guiding principle of global economic management. I’m certainly not advocating for, nor defending, the kinds of klepto-socialism practiced by the leadership of Zimbabwe, Vietnam, Maoist China or the now-defunct U.S.S.R. When I talk about “managing” the global economy, I’m talking about using market-based institutions to guide global development. This isn’t a new idea, nor is it a particularly leftist one. The I.M.F. manages the global economy by ensuring that individual government insolvencies don’t lead to the systemic collapse of global finance. The W.T.O. manages global trade. The World Bank attempts to manage economic development. None of these institutions are particularly socialistic, and they certainly aren’t back doors to central planning.
What I’m advocating, from a political perspective, is the development of global institutions that take into account not just traditional measures of economic health like per-capita GDP, public debt, balance of trade etc, but also the manner in which that health can be sustained. In China, for example, the staggering rates of economic growth in recent years have been accompanied by equally staggering environmental destruction. A 2006 report produced by the Chinese government estimated that environmental damage had cost China 3 percent of GDP in 2004. That number may be low. The next year’s report was not released for fear of embarrassing the regime. The fact that, today more than ever, there are serious negative externalities to industrial development that markets aren’t capturing shouldn’t surprise anyone who is paying attention. I’m simply proposing that we develop global regulatory regimes to capture them.
Returning to the question of U.S. military spending and military supremacy, however, I’d like to expand a bit on my initial exposition. Devil’s Advocate frames the issue of the size of America’s armed forces as merely a matter of will, rather than of long-term capability. Furthermore, given his misdiagnosis of the principle threats to global security – the regimes he mentions are a threat, not the threat, and probably not the most important one – Devil’s Advocate’s position is problematic. Since, historically, military power closely tracks relative economic strength, it is unrealistic to expect the United States to continue to occupy the near-omnipotent global position that it held during the early 1990s. Rising powers like China, India, Japan, Brazil, and even the E.U. simply won’t permit it. The maintenance of a military capable of taking on all comers on any corner of the globe would require continuous exponential increases in military spending that would quickly become unsustainable. Given the vagaries of domestic politics, this would likely lead to wild swings in our military budget, giving us no stable footing on which to stake out a secure strategic position. It isn’t a matter of will; it’s a matter of solvency.
In a recent issue of Foreign Affairs, Richard Betts argues that the U.S. spends far less on its military than would be necessary to achieve hegemonic dominance, but far more than is necessary to provide for its basic security. We spend more than half a trillion dollars a year on defense, and yet had no real military options when Russia recently invaded Georgia. On the other hand, the unprecedented reach of our armed forces encourages leaders to, in the words of Robert Kelly, “state-ize” problems like terrorism that require different and more nuanced approaches.
Under such circumstances, the United States would be far better served initiating a gradual reduction in military spending – or at least a curb of its increase – to play out over the next few decades. Many of the key pillars of our global security alliances (Europe, Japan, South Korea, Israel) are now sufficiently wealthy to bear the burdens of their own defense with diminished front-line American help in any case. We should continue to invest heavily in military research and development, both because it will provide us with the capability to ramp up our military’s size should the security situation demand it, and because our status as the key developer of military hardware will help continue to justify our place at the core of our various Occidental and Oriental security alliances.
One final point bears mentioning, though it’s almost cliché these days, given that it goes back to the Eisenhower era. The defense industry is now so thoroughly integrated into the rest of the American economy that the politics and economics of adjusting our defense posture towards less expansive goals will have to be dealt with very carefully. If this is going to happen, it will require a broad-based, multi-administration consensus that American military spending needs to be rationalized with our new geoeconomic and geostrategic position. Such considerations have been sorely absent from the broader national debate. It’s time they were given a more prominent place.
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Hi
You DO see the pyramid scheme symbol on the back of the USA one dollar bill, right? You DO see the servitude infestation in capitalism, right? And do you see the “pay up or lose your wellbeing” Chicago mob-like felony extortion widespread within capitalism? Do you see the “join or starve” felony extortion done to the 18 year olds… by this ugly competer’s church called capitalism? See how forcing competer’s religions onto 18 year olds… kills membership in the cooperator’s church (Christianity/socialism)?? Do you understand that AmWay (American Way) (New World Order) got “the exclusive” (legal tender) on the TYPE of survival coupons (money) accepted in supply depots (stores) and leverages 18 years olds into the organization via that felony activity as well? Do you understand how farmyard pyramids work… from your childhood?? Remember?? Upper 1/3 are “heads in the clouds” while the kids on the bottom ALWAYS GET CRUSHED from the weight of the world’s knees in their backs? Still with me? Do you see anything illegal, immoral, or just plain sick… in any of this pyramid scheme’s activities? Anyone home???
Us American Christian socialists are still patiently awaiting the natural fall of the pyramid-o-servitude, or the busting of the free marketeers felony… by the USA Dept of Justice. Us Christians are VERY CLOSE to issuing a cease and desist order until the servitude and inequality goes away… which means it turns into a commune. Commune is a word we LOVE when used in the word “community”… but its one the caps HATE when used in the term “commune-ism”. Go fig. PROGRAMMED!!
Time to level the felony pyramid scheme called capitalism. Abolish economies and ownershipism worldwide, and hurry. Economies just cause rat-racing, and rat-racing causes felony pyramiding. BUST IT, America and world! Look to the USA military supply/survival system… for socialism and morals done right. Equal, owner-less, money-less, bill-less, timecard-less, and concerned with growth of value-criteria OTHER THAN money-value. There are MANY measurement criteria of “value”… not just dollars. Try morals, efficiency, discrimination-levels, repairability, etc etc. Economies are cancerous tumors, and to cheer for their growth… is just insane. Profiting causes inflation, so if you caps LIKE inflation, and if you LIKE a terrible time in afterlife when you meet the planet’s ORIGINAL OWNER before caps tried to squat it all with ownershipism, then keep it up with the felony pyramiding. I dare you. While us Christians are finally bulldozing that pyramid scheme back to level, lets make servitude and “join or starve” illegal in the USA, and lets level the architecture seen in USA courtrooms, too. Right now, USA courtrooms are church simulators or “fear chambers”, by special design. Sick.
Isn’t enlightenment FUN!!!???
Larry “Wingnut” Wendlandt
MaStars – Mothers Against Stuff That Ain’t Right
(anti-capitalism-ists)
Bessemer MI USA
Comment on August 28, 2008 @ 7:47 am
Mr. Wendlandt…respectively, in the absence of politics (dictated terms of existence) capitalism is the only system that each and every transaction is non-dictated and hence would not require any politics. (This does not mean it will necessarily be a happy transaction though.) While any form of socialism requires for each and every transaction dictated terms in order to ensure the dictator’s political happiness. The purpose of dictating terms of transactions is to dictate the terms of existence / (socialism) and the purpose of socialism is to stack survival probabilities in the favor of the dictator (and related supporters) at the expense of the dictator’s non supporters.
So I ask you, what good is a person (a socialist) that demands / dictates to others? What is “noble” about stacking survival probabilities in one person’s favor at the dictated expense of others? Is the “American” dream to dictate the terms of existence to others?
Comment on August 28, 2008 @ 9:08 am
Hi Steve… thanks for the comment. Although I am far from a professional designer of societies and survival systems, I’ll do my best to describe one that i think would work. First off, I don’t believe that the classic “socialism” will work as a alternative to capitalism/pyramiding. If your definition of socialism… includes the use of money, trade, entitles of ownership, and/or competing, I believe that will not work. In MY version of socialism, there would be no trade, just taking care of one another equally, as best we can. It might be best described as “Team World” and it eliminates the need for borders and yard fences. There would be no “transactions” but there WOULD be equality laws, and very strict ones.
I’m a bit pressed for time at the moment, so I hope nobody minds if I paste-in a long spew I did at another blog once upon a time, and maybe that will explain my views better. Steve, I’m honored by your interest, and I, and my insane theories, will be around again soon.
I am not into blaming living things for the current Earth problems. I am instead into blaming SYSTEMS… and that is why I claim to be against capitalism, and not against capitalists. I believe capitalists… are playing “expected”, “railroaded”, and/or “traditioned” roles within the SYSTEM called capitalism. I believe many are “caught-up” in “economy” and that economies are a herd control con/sham invented by long-ago dead-of-old-age Free Masons and Illuminati (new world order). A quick Google IMAGE SEARCH for ‘pyramid of capitalist’ will show a full color picture of what I fight against. The thing I fight… is best described as a (socio-economic) pyramid (scheme), and like the pyramids we failed-at building in the farmyards as children, the upper 1/3 is “heads in the clouds” while the children on the bottom ALWAYS GET CRUSHED from the weight of the world’s knees in their backs. AmWay stands for American Way, and its pyramid scheme symbol is easily seen on the back of the USA dollar bill. It is a con/sham… used to keep large herds of people involved in busy-ness (business) and thus not being involved in morally governing and policing their nations and world.
I believe “what goes around, comes around” is VERY active within economies and within humankind, and I call such “spirography”. I believe invoicings/bills get handed-on and handed-on until they return to bite the issuer in the butt. I also believe the same goes for loving, giving, and sharing. When loving is issued to another, it also is handed on and on until it eventually returns to its issuer. There’s one more post-pertinent thing to be said about me me me. I spent 9 years in the U.S. Air Force, and when I exited, I saw massive lying going-on in the resume’ (worker-experience descriptions) of the American capitalists. That was something that I immediately began an investigation-of, and that led me to see the massive servitude infestation… due to folks rat-racing up the sides of the felony called capitalism (due to inequality). I learned about competition, blame-a-thons, yay-Americanism, us/them wars, handwashings, and addictions to enjoyments (addictions to “nice” things). Ok, enough about me.
During my time in the USAF, I saw monetary-discriminationless supply/survival systems at work, and working well. The U.S. military uses NO MONEY and NO INVOICING for the acquisition of non-owned survival supplies. It uses instead… requisition forms… and all materials, even once in the hands of the requisitioner, still belonged to “team” (USA military). In the USA military, every human act… has a regulation governing it. There’s a “manual” for everything, from how to clean up pee when one misses the toilet, to how to properly maintain a Huey helicopter. These were GOVERNING rules… rules of conduct… rules of fairness, rules of proper materials usage and care, rules of teamwork and getting along. There is a rule and manual for every last thing known to the USA military… somewhere on the shelves of each shop and/or squadron. And, there was really no such thing as ownership. Sure, miltary personnel had SOME freedoms in the off-base world… to “own” special things and we were indeed paid capitalist coupons (money) for using in off-base supply “stores” to acquire “luxuries”. But as far as survival goods, they were all available on-base (within “team”) and without money or ownership… through the use of requisition forms… which were handed-out freely and widely and never rationed.
Lets talk a minute now about “incentives” within “team”. “Get free training and education, see the world, be an integral part of a great team, be somebody” were a few that were advertised by the USA military… and they all turned out to be fairly accurate. But there were MASSIVE regulations and rules to follow… not overly difficult… and all the rules were quite doable just by exercising something called “caring” and “horse sense”. We were the “custodians” of the materials and each other, not the owners. As far as people-ownership, we were told that we were each owned by “team” (the US military) but yet… it didn’t feel restrictive at all. Friendships and teamwork were very common in the military, especially in on-base housing and in workcenters. There was no need to rob/steal anything from another, as one could instead just fill-out a requisition form and easily attain custodianship of a material or object. Sure, the military supply (survival) system was watched by “justification officers” who checked if a person REALLY NEEDED the requested object or supply, but it was fairly loose, and again… horse sense, logic, and caring… were the themes of the day. Rarely did anyone abuse a government-owned material or supply… as someone nearby who held high-pride for being part of “team”… would see the abuse and quickly exercise “horse sense” upon the abuser. In this way, team members did self-policing. They were able to do this… by “quoting regulations” and by tattle-telling on each other if abuse was seen or felt. Everyone knew that every material object, and the humans themselves… were owned by “team” and thus… when something that belonged to TEAM was damaged… it hurt everyone and everything. But even if the abuse continued past the “regulation quoting”… where punitive action was needed… rarely was anyone “jailed” in the classic sense. More often, an abuser was sent to “team school” to be “reminded” how and why abusing “team” was not a good thing. It really was a very loving and “all in the family” way of operating, and I will never regret my time in the USA military. In fact, I wish I was still allowed to be a member, and I guess I still DO consider myself a member. The USA military TEAM… is a warm place to be… especially when it hasn’t received orders to go kill some living thing. The luxuries were kept in a sharing device called a repository (recreational services was one such) and ANY member of the US military could “check out” boats and luxury stuff… and become temporary custodians of these government-owned and team-shared non-survival-goods luxuries. There were strict regulations on the use and abuse of these things, and again… just use horse sense and plenty of caring… and all was well. What was the incentive for being caring and not being a bad-apple as far as abusing the checked-out speedboat? Regulations, horse-sense, education, team pride, fear of spending time in “team school”, and the hope of “getting to” use the luxury object again someday… and even more regulations and manuals of conduct.
Some, would say that forcing everyone to “go by the book” as far as team regulations and manuals of conduct… is fascist and freedom-killing. It is, to a degree. Folks “have to” (for fear of being sent to remedial “team school”) live by rules written by (many) others. BUT, in the US military, EVERYONE HAS A SAY… be you airman, NCO, or officer. SO, ANY member of the US military who found a regulation that was unfair in some way, or insufficient in some way, had the power to get it changed… or get “a waiver”. Regulation waivers, after showing sufficient justification FOR the waiver… were also handed out quite freely. Although the military HAS a “pyramid” of rank, survival-supply and luxury-repository requisitions are NOT affected by these rank tenures. Although a slightly different “respect for expertise” was given to the 4-star general or deep-tenured NCO’s… survival supplies and luxury custodianships were handed out fairly and equally amongst all ranks, races, and genders. After all, ALL MEMBERS belonged to “team” and carried “team pride” and self-policing skills and caring. Team members took care of things and each other, and taught each other such skills as they quoted regulations helpfully to each other. It was one big family… and cooperation was seen much more often… than was competition.
When I started examining capitalism and economies after my honorable discharge, I went into shock. The civilian sector was lying their brains out over job skills, backstabbing, hoarding, and gouging each other over greenpapers and ownership, and had nothing but massive discrimination going-on. Everyone wanted to OWN everything. Everyone was invoicing the hell out of each other to get these greenpaper requisition forms. Many of the troops were going without survival supplies, often because of their race. It (capitalism) was/is just a rat-racing-on-a-pyramid MESS. Folks were NOT “custodianing” team-owned materials… they were holding “entitles of ownership” backed by police guns, and tug-o-warring and robbery was rampant. Every family and/or every person… had exercised their “freedom” to become a nation-unto-self and servitude was everywhere. Some were born “set for life” and others were born into servitude to the rich, who were seriously engulfed in enjoyment addictions. Equality was something totally lost, and locks, fences, and borders… were on EVERYTHING! This was all due to a “thing” invented by capitalism… called “ownership”. It was a “device” called “economy”… something not seen in the US military supply/survival system, nor was it seen in the USA public library system (both socialisms). WHY were folks in the civilian sector… all fighting over these goofy greenpapers (money) and these “entitles of ownership”? It was because some “organization” had put monetary rationing gates on all the survival supplies… rationing gates called “pricetags”.
Now lets take a look at the barely-surviving folks in Peru and other parts of the world. Do they need money? Under capitalism, the system… YES. But… if we were to remove pricetags from all the survival supplies… would they need money anymore? No. They would simply need requisition forms… as they would be co-members of “Team Earth” and members of Team Earth… don’t DO monetary discrimination. Members of Team Earth… only need to fill out a requisition form for supplies, and they get their rightful supplies… just like in the USA military. Did we, in the military, get paid wages? Sure we did, but we didn’t need to be. We could survive just fine without wages. But what is the incentive to get folks to GET TO (versus HAVE TO) help-out with “Team World” endeavors like keeping survival-supply warehouses stocked? IF folks were “allowed” to do absolutely nothing and still survive on Earth… then HOW can they be motivated into helping-out with supply shortages and other Team Earth-helping things?
Well, the only way would be to ASK THEM to help, and not force them. Many disagree with me, but I think folks LIKE to be around each other and LIKE to help each other out, and adopt one another. I think folks LIKE to be integral and have a “good name” and need not gather wages and ownership titles. I think folks would be happy to share the speedboat and not necessarily OWN one… and I think folks would want to be on Team Speedboat and help take care-of an mankind enjoyment device. Folks tend to feel powerless, and they attempt to compensate for such… by gathering owned things. (Notice the massive use of “my” in world yappings these days. “My doctor, my lawyer, my divorce, my husband, my kids, my house, my car, my cigarette, my lunch break, my steak, etc etc. Each use of “my” could be replaced with “a” or “the”).
And HOW do we “instill” the self-policing and regulation-quoting of Earth inhabitants and Earth materials? By sharing ownership. It would take EVERYONE being an equal owner of EVERYTHING ever made from ANY Earth material. Sure, we have to give the builders, inventors, and workers who “produced” said product or service… proper credit. But… credit does not mean they own something made from God-owned Earth materials. Their would be ONLY custodians of Earth objects, not owners. Since everyone was an equal owner of everything, everyone would tend to police abuses done to Earth materials and produced objects. Now… if a person wants the freedom to abuse something… say a monster truck… would we disallow such? Yes, at least initially. But we’d try to facilitate a place and way for those who love to abuse and destroy stuff… to satisfy their wishes/freedoms. A “waiver” area and method could be invented. A “monster truck abusing grounds”… shared by anyone wanting to crush things or blow things up. We’d TRY to give folks who like crushing and blowing things up… freedom to destroy (non-living things)… as soon as we possibly could (after ensuring all have basic survival needs). Team members who worked diligently to “make that happen” would be held in high-esteem by our mentor-following media cameras. ANYONE who worked their brains out… to provide a mankind-helping product or service… would be heroes in this new non-competing, all-cooperating way of life. And there… is the incentive to work for no wages and without ownershipism. Its called “having a good name” hero-worship. Sure there’s going to be some bad-apples, but regulations and co-policing would soon put bad-apples into “Team World School” and make sure they understood HOW and WHY they were being non-team players. EVERYONE would be a morals cop, and an Earth materials cop… and we’d all be teachers… and we’d all parent each others kids… and teach them all from the same regulations and manuals… constantly ironing-out the “team vision” and inserting waiver after waiver where needed. We’d be constantly weighing and evolving “the regulations”… regulations that are more in a cooperating Christian-like light… instead of a competing and backstabbing light.
But the first step to “Team World” is… abolishing economies worldwide… and thus eliminating ownership, pricetags, money, invoicing, wages, advertising, and competing. That would be the end of poverty. Are we ready to make the switch and get a morals-storytelling nun on every street corner? Remember, although the fairness and wisdom regulations would be strict and firmly enforced, robbery and tug-o-warring would be gone, and jails would be more like loving schools than like cages. I think its time to make the switch to a more Christian-like, more US military-like, and more US public library-like system, don’t you? Abolish/outlaw economies (ownership/money/advertising/trade) and servitude worldwide, and lets HURRY! If you want to collapse capitalism (American Way) the gruesome way, let ANYONE print-up their owned legal tender money, in any denomination they want, and force it to be accepted in all supply depots (stores). Instant equality! Sorry for the long-windedness. Take care! Wingnut
Comment on August 28, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
Two brief comments, Mr Eckel…
Military capability is not tied lock and step to economic strength. My first thought is of the Apache leader Geronimo. A combat hardened and professional American army was forced to use 5,000 troops and dozens of scouts to defeat Geronimo and a handful of his men. The Apache war alone was costing the US hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Yet Geronimo was able to raid and strike targets in Mexico and the Southwest with little or no wealth at all, holding out for months until Apache turncoats tracked him down for the Army.
Israel does not have any front-line American troops guarding it. Nor has it ever. It has shared hundreds of military innovations with the US though, the sort you claim we should focus on. This must be the best case of self ownage by a debater I have read in awhile. Your dislike for Israel has just made you look foolish.
The idea of drawing down the military budget due to the emergence of greater threats, ie.. China, is confusing logic to me. I am suddenly thankful you are not in a decision making position to effect the safety of my family.
Comment on August 29, 2008 @ 5:34 pm