[lit-ideas] Re: Iran/al-Qaeda Ties Suggested
- From: "Andy Amago" <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 23 Mar 2006 09:08:33 -0500
Eric, I have to come out of retirement for a minute on this. I'm not sure
you understand the concept of "military Keynesianism". As a disclaimer,
I'm a believer in Keynes. Basically, Keynes is demand side, it says: let
the government give the people jobs (what FDR did in the Depression) and
they'll have money to buy things and that will trigger factories to produce
goods, and more people will be hired, and the cycle will go up. Supply
side (?Reaganomics; Dubya?) says let the government give the ultra rich
money (tax breaks) and it will "trickle down" to the middle class because
the rich will invest in their factories, hire workers, the workers will go
out and buy, etc. Instead, the rich take the money and move to China and
build factories there and help the middle class in those countries. Supply
side absolutely has not worked. Bush Sr. called Reaganomics ?Voodoo
Economics?.
This author is saying that the government is giving people jobs, but
instead of building roads and bridges and healthcare, they?re building
weapons. It's not really Keynes, Keynes was consumer side, but a "military
Keynesianism". He?s saying it?s a perpetuation of the economics of WWII,
that we're building unnecessary, expensive, redundant weapons just to keep
the economy going. He's saying this ?military Keynesianism? is built into
the psyche of the country, it's the backbone of our country. And, he's
saying that all this expensive, redundant equipment is useless against
those who are beating us: the poorest countries in the world. Afghanistan
and Iraq have stopped us in our tracks, and in fact military Keynesianism
created the Afghan mess (read the article). All this spending is
essentially digging a military hole and filling it back up again, and it's
hurting us. We're broke as a country. We borrow money to build those
weapons. The debt is the interest we pay on the money we borrow. This
author is saying essentially that we're at risk of imploding from within
because of our debt, the way the USSR did. Who would have believed in the
70's or even 80's that the USSR would have collapsed? The CIA had no clue,
that's for sure.
Definitely, the *culture* of the Middle East is inhumanly misogynistic and
anti-life in a lot of ways. But, our having an economy and culture that
hinges on weapons production isn't changing their culture, and it isn't
even winning our wars. It's doing serious economic harm to us and nothing
more.
It might be helpful to re-read the article again but with a more impartial
eye. We can't guard against and change what we don't acknowledge.
> [Original Message]
> From: Eric <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 3/23/2006 2:38:26 AM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Iran/al-Qaeda Ties Suggested
>
> Omar quotes some disaffected swabby: After all,
> those boys and girls aren't necessarily the most
> admirable human beings that ever came along
>
> No, the 9/11 hijackers were, Omar. Of course.
>
> A UN study funded by the Arab League showed that
> the Muslim nations of the Middle East are behind
> almost every area of the world in learning, access
> to education, women's rights, prospects of
> advancement, intellectual freedom...and on and on.
> Must have been quite an embarrassment to them. It
> hasn't received much press. I could look it up and
> post it if you want. Now the rank-and-file
> soldiers from an area like that...must be real
> gentlemen I'm sure.
>
>
>
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