The military-industrial complex’s tentacles reach deep into American industry and across the entire U.S. From Lenny Broytman at issuechronicle.substack.com:
Defense giants like Huntington Ingalls are the ones who make headlines but it’s the company’s network of suppliers that makes the military-industrial complex tick
Nothing exemplifies the waste of government spending quite like the US military’s fleet of aircraft carriers. Because so many people are getting a piece of the pie, it’s a budgetary line item that only seems to go in one direction and has become a spending addiction the US just can’t seem to shake.
The defense dollars never stop flowing to weapons manufacturers like Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and Raytheon, but the contracts these industry leaders receive are generally just the tip of the iceberg. It’s only once you zoom out and consider the thousands of suppliers they work with that the military-industrial complex’s grip on our economy truly snaps into focus.
It’s an ecosystem that keeps countless communities in the United States afloat but it does so at the expense of a global military footprint that’s killed and displaced millions, has destabilized regions on multiple continents, and has ultimately made us less safe. Increasing our investment in the Pentagon ensures that this will never end. As a result, the economy we’ve essentially engineered depends on a future that is consumed by warfare. It’s a deeply disturbing way to construct a society but that’s what we’ve done.
