Rather than meet the security challenge posed by September 11 with a comprehensive plan to plug the holes in the public infrastructure, the Bush team devised a new role for government, one in which the job of the state was not to provide security but to purchase it at market prices...According to the Bush vision, the role of government is merely to raise the money necessary to launch the new war market, then buy the best products that emerge out of the creative cauldron, encouraging industry to great innovation. In other words, the politicians create the demand, and the private sector supplies all manner of solutions -- a booming economy in homeland security and twenty-first-century warfare entirely underwritten by taxpayer dollars.Sadly, though not surprisingly, President Obama has expanded on this blueprint. His campaign of "hope" wasn't meant for us; he hoped to deliver more and more public dollars to the disaster capitalists.
~ from The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein ~
Thus far, things seem to be going all according to plan!!
The same is often said about WW2, which in addition to taxpayer dollars demanded great sacrifice in other areas from the people. Companies like Ford and Bayer and IG Farben all participated and benefited from the war. And isn't all warfare "underwritten by taxpayer dollars." Nothing new here.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately or not, the public dollars going to the "disaster capitalists" also provide jobs, which in turn support local economies. I say this from a State whose economy depends heavily on the defense industry.
And the struggling high tech industry in Hawaii has been shaken by the recent moratorium on earmarks, despite our senior Senator's position as Defense Appropriations Chair and king of pork. I know a lot of software engineers who may be looking for jobs in the hotel industry or moving to the mainland. (And picking pineapples is no longer an alternative.)
Actually, the "plan", if it was one, is failing.