[06/16/1995 – 06/19/1997]

ARMS Email System Page 1 of 3 RECORD TYPE: PRESIDENTIAL (EXTERNAL MAIL) CREATOR: SCHWEITZ@UCIS. VILL. EDU@INET@EOPMRX CREATION DATE/TIME: 16-JUN-1995 13:16:00.00 SUBJECT: The military TO: oc-alum ( [email protected]@INET@EOPMRX ) READ:NOT READ IND TO: Angela Davis ( DAVIS AC ) (WHO) EAD:16-JUN-1995 14:16:06.60 TEXT: Fred commented that military spending is about jobs. Sort of. It's about jobs and profits. Not the same thing. Here are some things to think about: 1. It seems okay to lobby to keep the Philadelphia Shipyards open. But it hasn't occurred to anyone to lobby to help the laid off shipyard workers - - good workers with good skills -- make a transition to other work by putting them on public works projects. Lots of things need doing around Phiadelphia. The infrastructure is crumbling. It is an old railroad-hub city with too many buildings left over from the days when jobs were downtown - - nothing to do with those buildings but level them, find a better use for the building materials, and open up clean space. They ARE blowing up the old high-rise projects - - good. But they also need to build clean, solid inexpensive housing. Best solution is to take the old townhouses that were divided into apartments and recondition them back into single family dwellings -- but in many cases the old townhouses are too far gone for repair. Or - - how about fixing up the schools? How about building rooms for quiet reading, for small group tutoring? Or how about running activities for kids after school? Why don't we take some of the same money and the same people and hold off for a few years on firing them and put them to work making the lives of children better? Why don't we shower the children of this country with the type of attention with which servicemen were showered in WWII? 2. Cutting military spending too often means closing bases and throwing a LOT of people out of work, rather than cutting back on the capital intensive long-term projects that we ought to be thinking seriously as to why we really need them. My personal favorite is the Osprey - - an airplane designed to go up and down like a helicopter, but SO far it's a total lemon. It goes up, but then it falls down. Not when it' supposed to. If you were to talk about shutting down the Osprey plant, youy hear cries of -- BUT WE NEED THE JOBS. Well, think about it. Precisely how much of that subsidy goes to how MANY PEOPLE? And don't tell me the macro bs about it doesn't matter whether it goes to a few rich people or a lot of middle class people yes it does. 3. The military spending argument reminds me so much of the construction industry's arguments - - Oh, we NEED to build that new shopping mall because it will create SO many new jobs. What kind of jobs? Well, all these construction workers will be empoloyed. Yeah? And for how long? The time it takes to build the mall. And then out of work again, right? Great solution to long-run economic problems. Okay, then, the STORES will be more jobs. Yeah? Will there be MORE stores, and MORE sales jobs, or will they just move out of the old crummy-looking malls and into the bright shiny new one? 4. When are we going to face the implications of all opportunity