11 February 2005
Hardware vs. Human Intelligence
In the February 5, 2005, New York Times, Mr. Patrick Redden Keefe reported on the OPEd page that $13 billion of the federal budget is supposed to have been allocated next year to remote intelligence gathering, including the satellite project known as Misty. Lockheed Martin is apparently one of the main recipients of these funds.
Government military contractors spend a lot of money on lobbying for this business – to some degree on the bureaucrats who write the budgets and who operate their systems and equipment. They devote a larger lobbying expense, no doubt, to the reelection campaigns of the members of Congress who vote for bills that appropriate funds to purchase their wares.
The federal government has steadily become the dominant part of the domestic market for these contractors’ products. To the extent that they make products for consumers, or that other domestic corporations supply consumers, companies have increasingly filled orders with products made overseas, where they seek production economies. Of course, this is one of the benefits of globalization. If U.S. companies did not adopt a global manufacturing strategy, they would quickly be overshadowed by foreign producers.
Despite the erosion of America’s trade balance, the exchange rate value of dollar is artificially high, particularly vis a vis the Chinese yuan, the Korean Won, and the Japanese Yen. This is partly the result of a masterful Asian tactic of investing in the dollar in order to permit continued exploitation of the American consumer’s desire to maximize the amount of goods he can buy with his unsaved income. In fact, over the last five years, the amount goods imported into the U.S. has kept pace with the growth of personal consumption, while manufacturers’ shipments have lagged behind.
By default, then, the federal government has grown in importance as the customer of U.S. manufacturers. There are many ways that the needs of the government for goods can be increased – war is one of them, and so are satellite and other high technology methods of collecting intelligence on terrorist enemies (thankfully, we have outlasted our only credible strategic national competitor). The reasons for war and the rationalizations for high-tech intelligence are questionable, except that they create contributions for and employ constituents of politicians.
In the February 5, 2005, New York Times, Mr. Patrick Redden Keefe reported on the OPEd page that $13 billion of the federal budget is supposed to have been allocated next year to remote intelligence gathering, including the satellite project known as Misty. Lockheed Martin is apparently one of the main recipients of these funds.
Government military contractors spend a lot of money on lobbying for this business – to some degree on the bureaucrats who write the budgets and who operate their systems and equipment. They devote a larger lobbying expense, no doubt, to the reelection campaigns of the members of Congress who vote for bills that appropriate funds to purchase their wares.
The federal government has steadily become the dominant part of the domestic market for these contractors’ products. To the extent that they make products for consumers, or that other domestic corporations supply consumers, companies have increasingly filled orders with products made overseas, where they seek production economies. Of course, this is one of the benefits of globalization. If U.S. companies did not adopt a global manufacturing strategy, they would quickly be overshadowed by foreign producers.
Despite the erosion of America’s trade balance, the exchange rate value of dollar is artificially high, particularly vis a vis the Chinese yuan, the Korean Won, and the Japanese Yen. This is partly the result of a masterful Asian tactic of investing in the dollar in order to permit continued exploitation of the American consumer’s desire to maximize the amount of goods he can buy with his unsaved income. In fact, over the last five years, the amount goods imported into the U.S. has kept pace with the growth of personal consumption, while manufacturers’ shipments have lagged behind.
By default, then, the federal government has grown in importance as the customer of U.S. manufacturers. There are many ways that the needs of the government for goods can be increased – war is one of them, and so are satellite and other high technology methods of collecting intelligence on terrorist enemies (thankfully, we have outlasted our only credible strategic national competitor). The reasons for war and the rationalizations for high-tech intelligence are questionable, except that they create contributions for and employ constituents of politicians.
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