Posted on 07/06/2016 5:33:12 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Larger aggregate GDP does nothing significant for the ordinary guy on the street if it is not adequately distributed such that the ordinary guy on the street can get a job that can provide for himself and his family.
A strong defense does nothing significant for a homeless guy with no way to feed his family, or a guy on a minimum wage while multinational fatcats rake in profits that wind up offshore.
Overweighing defense works out to a defense of a system of economic enslavement. Anyway a society consisting of well paid soldiers at the top of the economic pyramid is likely to be a dictatorship, because in order to feed your family, you need to be in the military or government, a la North Korea. What kind of society does the NK military have which is worth protecting? —a hollow society devoid of well-being for the median citizen.
My point is that a nation that doesn’t direct itself to long term military strength gets taken over by a nation that does.
Why would you say military leaders would be wealthy? It is the bankers and investor class who would be wealthy in my scenario, not the military. Military strength is primarily determined by strength of weapons and not number of soldiers.
NAFTA is POS Mexican trucks that don’t meet US safety criteria driving over the border and then driving all through the USA. It also means that now the cargo usually loaded onto US trucks and driven throughout the USA by American truck drivers does not happen.
NAFTA is the cessation of labeling the country of origin on meat so that you can’t make sure you are only eating USDA.
NAFTA is the main reason we have lost millions of manufacturing jobs in the US in the last 20 years.
There is not really one positive thing about NFTA unless you live in Mexico.
NAFTA is POS Mexican trucks that don’t meet US safety criteria driving over the border and then driving all through the USA. It also means that now the cargo usually loaded onto US trucks and driven throughout the USA by American truck drivers does not happen.
NAFTA is the cessation of labeling the country of origin on meat so that you can’t make sure you are only eating USDA.
NAFTA is the main reason we have lost millions of manufacturing jobs in the US in the last 20 years.
There is not really one positive thing about NFTA unless you live in Mexico.
Saudi Arabia has a strong army but its economy is weak, based on production of oil which is a non-renewable resource— essentially mining (a source of wealth).
Saudi Arabia has no manufacturing (a source of wealth) and no agriculture (a source of wealth).
By your definition, Saudi Arabia is in good shape with its strong military. Yet, would you want to live there? Would you want to raise a family there?
Saudi Arabia does not even manufacture its own weapons.
A sound economy is a balanced economy, one that has manufacturing, agriculture, and mining. Everything else (even military) is “downstream” (a service) of the primary economic wealth engines.
So a strong military is nice, but ultimately leads to being an unbalanced society (in one way or another) if there is not a sound economy (mining, manufacturing, and agriculture) supporting that strong military.
If you have an economy that is missing one of the three legs of economic wealth, then you have a two legged stool. In particular, a country that loses its manufacturing wealth becomes dependent on, and eventually subservient to, powers (governments or multinationals) that control the manufactured goods that need to be imported to sustain that economy.
Multinational free trade agreements herald the ascendancy of multinational corporate power over national sovereignty.
That power will eventually express itself by government sanctioned physical force.
And that expression of government sanctioned use of physical force would not be pretty.
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