War - stimulus of last resort

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/MI14Dj03.html

"War! Good God, ya'll. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin'!"

So went the anti-Vietnam War protest song popularized by Edwin Starr in 1970 and revived by Bruce Springsteen in the 1980s. After 9/11, it was placed on the list of post-9/11 inappropriate titles distributed by Clear Channel. So went the Bruce Springsteen pop hit of the 1980s, first produced as an anti-Vietnam War song in 1969.

The song echoed popular sentiment. The Vietnam War ended. Then the Cold War ended. Yet military spending remains the government's number one expenditure. When veterans' benefits and other past military costs are factored in, half the government's budget now goes to the military/industrial complex. Protesters


have been trying to stop this juggernaut ever since the end of World War II, yet the war machine is more powerful and influential than ever.

Why? The veiled powers pulling the strings no doubt have their own dark agenda, but why has our much-trumpeted system of political democracy not been able to stop them?

The answer may involve our individualistic, laissez-faire brand of capitalism, which forbids the government to compete with private business except in cases of "national emergency". The problem is that private business needs the government to get money into people's pockets and stimulate demand. The process has to start somewhere, and government has the tools to do it. But in our culture, any hint of "socialism" is anathema. The result has been that a state of "national emergency" has had to be declared virtually all of the time, just to get the government's money into the economy.