I have been slightly curious what portion of job losses are coming from the MIC! If anyone has good data on it, please let me know. However, a little examination of some numbers provided by CNN indicates that after the computer industry, Aerospace and defense seem to have suffered the greatest number of cuts! We are all focusing on Auto industry. Of course, the data is just from January and I suspect the Auto industry losses have happened before. But, considering that the red bar in the figure EXCLUDES Haliburton cuts (which are not specified by the corporation), then we might wonder how the war industry resources may be "stimulated" into something else! Just curious! What are your thoughts?
8 comments:
Sweets, I have been trying to find out that information forever. The M-I-C is so intertwined with the rest of the economy that even people who study it and used to consult for the CIA can't find it.
Like for instance Boeing makes more than military aircraft.
Many industries work for MIC. Many workers do not know what it is that they are making, or who they are making it for.
My husband has in the past quit some jobs after he has realized the innocent radar he would be working on was made for a missile that was to be headed towards a birthday party in Tehran! (He has not switched industry; that's a relief. And i decided to never practice as an Electrical Engineer either. Although i graduated from it with an A GPA. I switched my field, because as part of my engineering training we were to take an oath that we will never make anything that would harm humans. I just wanted to be sure. We are strict about our investments too. We have learned that ethical investment leaves us with little choice; and even littler rate of return.)
he has not switched industry ... should read he has NOW
You mean you can even figure out what you are invested in?
lol
Hi nunya;
Yes, actually we can in Canada! :)) wanna move up here?
Naj,
sorry to be late to the party here, had a blog holiday over the weekend.
In brief, no, there's no way to tell real figures. Recently Obama called for a 10% Pentagon budget cut, which induced immediate seizures and predictions of doom from the expected sources.
Ironically, most people don't realize what percentage of the MIC production has been outsourced overseas--I would guess 30-40%, with many key components manufactured by Singapore, Taiwan, China. Militarily, this is about as dumb as it gets.
Passing legislation specifying parts for weapons be made domestically would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, if not millions, at the same time as a 10% budget cut.
Thanks Marc.
Well from what I know, it's the manufacturing of little pieces that are outsourced, but the designs are kept in North America. A Company I knew was required to run a tight security/background check on the management and higher up engineers when they were contracted some special part of a special radar.
Yes, the little pieces tend to be things like the custom-made small-run processors which the function of the entire weapon depends on, and which come with a little map on them which shows you how that system or subsytem of the weapon is intended to function.
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