I’ve had a hunch these last several months that the corruption and grifting that has been infiltrating the USA’s MIC might now be a larger weight around the neck of both it and NATO than most people think.
The poor performance in Ukraine, the continuing jokes provided to us by the F-35, the gap in technology like hypersonic missiles…I really wonder if the USA is even capable of designing and producing modern weaponry in the quantities required to sustain a conflict more intense than a colonial occupation. I suspect we’ll be finding out soon, and we might already be finding out.
There’s an absolutely obscene amount of waste, I had a friend who used to work at a defensive contractor and they grossly overcharge on every item on every contract. Even replacement bolts and screws were marked up hundreds of times. In many cases the exact itemized bill isn’t given to the government as the contractor prefers to keep it confidential (I can’t imagine why). All of that excess probably ends up in the executive level pockets on one side or the other.
They might spend more than the next several countries combined in defense spending, but I would be honestly surprised if they got more value out of that spending than any of them.
I remember Bernie Sanders (!) pointing this out during the 2016 election. The specific example he used was the military paying almost a thousand bucks for a part you can get at most hardware stores for $1.50. People seemed kind of upset, but nobody bothered to contradict him.
Apparently a big chunk of that 877 billion dollar budget goes toward vanity projects and lining the pockets of generals and business execs.
I’ve had a hunch these last several months that the corruption and grifting that has been infiltrating the USA’s MIC might now be a larger weight around the neck of both it and NATO than most people think.
The poor performance in Ukraine, the continuing jokes provided to us by the F-35, the gap in technology like hypersonic missiles…I really wonder if the USA is even capable of designing and producing modern weaponry in the quantities required to sustain a conflict more intense than a colonial occupation. I suspect we’ll be finding out soon, and we might already be finding out.
There’s an absolutely obscene amount of waste, I had a friend who used to work at a defensive contractor and they grossly overcharge on every item on every contract. Even replacement bolts and screws were marked up hundreds of times. In many cases the exact itemized bill isn’t given to the government as the contractor prefers to keep it confidential (I can’t imagine why). All of that excess probably ends up in the executive level pockets on one side or the other.
They might spend more than the next several countries combined in defense spending, but I would be honestly surprised if they got more value out of that spending than any of them.
I remember Bernie Sanders (!) pointing this out during the 2016 election. The specific example he used was the military paying almost a thousand bucks for a part you can get at most hardware stores for $1.50. People seemed kind of upset, but nobody bothered to contradict him.