June 8, 2011 What to Do with Our Billion$
by John Repp
What will we do with all the money when we “Bring Our Billion$ Home”? Asking and answering this question could help us develop our vision for the WWFOR campaign. At the present time, we have been supporting the movement opposing cuts to schools, health care and other needed government programs and the movement supporting increasing revenue by taxing wealthy individuals and corporations. The financial markets and the talking heads of the corporate media have been very successful in convincing Congress that government debt and the budget deficit is the most pressing problem we face. However in several recent polls, the public, by large percentages, sees debt and deficits as less important than jobs and the economy. www.pollingreport.com/prioriti.htm These polls suggest that debt and deficits are a symptom not a cause of deeper problems. A new report from the Institute for Policy Studies entitled “The Green Dividend” gives us needed perspective. www.fpif.org/reports/greendividend After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, there was an expectation of a peace dividend in Europe and the United States, as the need for massive military spending disappeared.
The report tells us that in the U.S. from 1990 to 1997, 85% of the $116 billion in military spending cuts went to deficit reduction. Of the 15% that was spent for conversion, most went for worker retraining and planning grants to communities hard hit by the military cuts. “Missing was any attention to helping defense companies avoid layoffs by converting to civilian production.” Leaders assumed the “free market” would take care of that! In other words, real conversion was avoided. “The Green Dividend” report recommends that as we pull the money out of wars and military spending, we reinvest the money in [green] “building and retrofitting, mass transit and freight rail, a smart grid for electrical transmission, wind and solar power and advanced biofuels”, Congressional district by Congressional district. Much of the report is tables matching location and military project with green jobs equivalents. A company making airplane wings can make windmills.
In the 20 years since the aborted peace dividend of the 1990’s, the scientific consensus around climate change has strengthened exponentially. Global climate chaos is the real existential threat to our civilization, not “terrorism” which we only exacerbate with our military occupations. We must reinvest in our economy to achieve environmental sustainability as we “Bring Our Billion$ Home”.
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- Posted under 2011 June/August (Vol. 31 No. 3)
