So, Status Coup put out a video saying "Biden Admits WAR is America's Jobs Program!", and uh, MAN is it a bunch of cringe.
So, it starts out with Biden basically defending defense spending spent on Ukraine and Israel on the grounds that it creates jobs for American workers, and the left, who normally loves jobs and jobs programs, lost their crap. *sigh*, let's go through this one step at a time.
First of all, I hate jobs for jobs' sake. I hate jobs programs for their own sake. I'm a human centered capitalist and think that jobs are a means to an end, not an end in itself. I hate the idea of creating work for its own sake just so we can say we employed people.
HOWEVER, do these jobs serve a purpose? yes. As Biden (and the video) point out, we're basically giving Ukraine and Israel old stuff, so we can replenish our stockpiles with new stuff. And you know what? Fair. I support giving Ukraine military aid. Russia MUST be stopped, and they MUST be broken in Ukraine. They invaded, and we need to make continuing the conflict as painful as possible for them, because they need to learn not to do that crap. Israel, I'm a bit more mixed on. I'm not gonna get self righteous over it like leftists do, but let's just say....I both understand where we're coming from in giving them aid, while also understanding where leftists come from in opposing it. And both have a point. Given I'm a "big picture" kind of guy, I think giving aid to Israel isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I also understand why this is one of those things that may be ethically questionable given how Israel is acting. I'm more supporting it in the name of our own national security interests, not some perfect morality here.
But, of course, the left is opposing THIS particular jobs program because they are bugnuts over our defense spending, particularly Israel. And they basically went on quite a rant about the military industrial complex. While I understand where they're coming from given Eisenhower's quote, I oppose jobs programs because I oppose jobs, they oppose it because they wanna take a self righteous stance on war, we are not the same.
In all honesty though, Biden framing it as a jobs thing was intended to be positive. Like it or not, Americans clamor for work, and they clamor for jobs. Our entire politics is, like it or not, about jobs, and given the alternative to Biden is pushing this "make america great again" stuff and how we need to make more stuff in America, Biden is triangulating to try to appease those voters. It's smart. I mean I doubt a ton of them will go for it since a lot of them seem to hate people with a D after their name for its own sake, but he's at least trying to do what they SAY they want, more factory jobs making things in America.
And you know what? In the context of the military, I think they have a point. You know GDP? That measure I think we need to stop treating as an end all be all of the economy and how it translates to human happiness? Well, let's explain why we value GDP so much.
So...y'all remember World War II, right? Okay, so, during World War II, our economy entered a state known as "total war", or a "war economy." Basically, when the crap really hits the fan, our entire economy is retooled around the war effort. In the 1940s, we had a manufacturing economy, and every country involved converted all of their factories to making stuff for the war. Factories would make guns, and knifes and bombs, and airplanes, and tanks, and uniforms, etc. Basically, the industrial might of America became all about making stuff for the war. And the country that had the most sustainable manufacturing base won, because they could spam out more stuff.
This is actually why we firebombed cities like Dresden and Tokyo with all of those civilian casualties. It wasnt about killing civilians, it was about bombing the factories to the ground. No factories means no economy means no more weapons means we win.
We also were relatively safe from being bombed. Most of our stuff was in the lower 48, and sent to Europe and the Pacific via ships and planes, so our supply lines remained intact while Europe's...didn't. And that's why we became such an amazing super power after the war. Europe and the other world powers were bombed to crap, we were the only one with anything left. And Russia, which, you know, had thousands of miles of land extending into siberia and as such could recover more easily (although to be fair without lend lease Russia wouldnt have gotten anywhere since their tactics were the same as they're employing in Ukraine now and see how that's working for them). So yeah, industrial might. It's what wins wars long term. it's like a giant game of advance wars. More cities and factories means more money and more ability to build units. It's also the one positive benefit of having a high GDP. A high GDP, a high measure of economic activity, at least within the realm of an industrial economy, means that we have more stuff. We have more ore miners in command and conquer. More cities in advance wars. We have more minerals and bases in starcraft, you get the idea. And we want to have a state of regular military readiness to be able to counter any threat. And quite frankly, we can. We have the biggest economy, we have the biggest military budget, and we're several generations more advanced in the tech tree than rival civilizations. We are "winning".
Now, as time goes on, China might challenge us there. China has a population 4x ours, but a development level 1/4 ours. If you do the math on that, they are about as economically powerful as us in theory. And that's concerning. However, they only spend a fraction of what we do on military, their technology is decades behind ours (given the lower level of development), and their spawning position isn't as good as ours, and much more exploitable to our benefit given the current geopolitical climate (which is why we can't afford to be isolationist).
It's been debated whether china will keep growing and by how much, but they have insane raw numbers. They got this 1.3 billion population and can still put out a ton of lower level cheap junk.We have fewer people, but our tech is better. They're zerg, we're protoss, get it?
Anyway, we can debate whether the interconnectedness of the world economy is a good thing if the crap hit the fan war wise, but I think that military is one place where America first has a point. We want our military crap to be made by Americans. We dont wanna ship that to China. Have China build OUR stuff? What happens if we go to war with them some day? So yeah, these are the one kind of American jobs I'm for. Not that we should just produce stuff for its own sake, but should World War III eventually break out, do you want your factories making tanks and bombs here, or overseas? My point exactly.
So....this is the one kind of "jobs program" I'm for. Not because i support jobs for jobs sake, but because the country NEEDS this, and because push comes to shove, our options for the defense industry is either make it ourselves, or automate it. I cant support outsourcing that crap.
As for whether GDP still matters in the 21st century, good question. Because let's face it, we HAVE outsourced the factory stuff to Mexico, and China, and Bangladesh, etc., our economy isnt industrial. We have a service economy. We put people to work in service jobs at the bottom with the high income jobs being mostly office and stem jobs. Sure, the stem stuff probably contributes to the military, but a lot of economic activity seems divorced from the original intent of GDP, and if the crap hit the fan, I'm not sure how good of a state we will be in in actually producing stuff. Sure, we have numbers and can "pay" for stuff apparently, but we don't have the industrial base any more, or it's not the focus of the economy. Back in 1979 22% of our economy was manufacturing, now it's 9%. And sure, we've grown a lot since then, it's just that it isnt in making stuff. It's in other kinds of labor. So are we better off than we were in the 1970s? Unclear.
Of course, fiscally, the country could sustain more military spending if crap hit the fan, given the massive economy, but as status coup pointed out, from an MMT perspective, the government just creates and destroys money when it taxes and spends. All taxing money does is take money out of circulation so it doesnt cause inflation. Of course, to be fair, we kinda need a big economy to ensure when the government spends big the dollar doesnt become monopoly money, but I digress. The point is, does GDP have the same impact today that it did in the 1940s and the last world war and total war economy? Probably not. Does it have some relevance? yes. Should we keep growing? Yes. Let's just stop acting like growth is good for its own sake, just like jobs arent good for their own sake.
But yes, if the crap hits the fan, we're gonna need people working to make stuff so we can fight a war. So I'm gonna hard disagree with status coup here on this. This is the one kind of jobs program I'm gonna say is absolutely essential, from my functionalist, human centered capitalist point of view. I dont support jobs for jobs' sake, but I do support defense spending when it's used toward productive and necessary causes.
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