[PEN-L:30404] Re: RE: military ricardianism

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sabri Oncu" <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>

>
> Combining the above two, can we say Ian that "Military
> Ricardianism" is just another name for the US attempt of building
> a world empire? It is my view that although the US military power
> is unrivaled, at least for the time being, the US doesn't have
> the economic power to bring this enterprise of her to a
> successful conclusion and dissenting voices from around the
> world, and in the US, are getting louder and louder.
>
> Unfortunately, this dying dinosaur has a huge tail and, in the
> absence of a stronger opposition, she doesn't look like she will
> hesitate to swing it.
>
> Sabri

=======================

Sabri,

Yeah, it seems more an issue of the military dimensions of empire are largely
built, although the psychopathic 'hawks' want about a dozen more bases that
they've established in the past few years enlarged and maintained. The question
then becomes one of keeping the all volunteer military adequately staffed, which
is a looming problem. The 'hawks noted this in their big 3 piece reports on 21st
century national security; the right has been to successful in fomenting
anti-government attitudes regarding the competence of public insitutions, that a
whole generation has been raised on the notion that civil service is a joke and,
besides, they pay shitty wages compared to the 'private' sector. So they're in a
pickle on that score if they can't hire citizens to run the bureaucracies they
need to manage 21st century cowboy capitalism. And if the bureaucrats can't
afford to live in the DC area in the future - many are doing 2+ hour commutes
now- there's a whole set of problems in terms of the budget being eaten by labor
costs just to maintain an adequate level of incentives to join the federal
workforce. Imagine the Repugs. calling for TAX increases..........

As for economic power, the demographic shifts brought on by aging boomers -noted
by Doug's quip about them eating cat food for retirement when he had William
Wolman on his show talking about the 401[k] hoax- it is possible that the
computational complexity of financialization could exceed the political and
managerial competencies of steering such a large aging population; not just in
the US but across the G-7. If that's a plausible scenario, I don't see how the
dying dino swinging it's tail will mitigate, via distraction or in response to
further 9-11 type attacks, the real possibility of future financial calamaties.
I hope to hell I'm wrong, I'm not a "the worse the better" kind of lefty.

Ian