The MIC is about 1/4 of the US economy. If there's no war, that whole thing stops (or they have to start equipping domestic police, which they are also doing).

The US used to manufacture bullets to fight wars. Now it manufactures wars to sell bullets. And tanks, and planes, and robots, and etc.

America is hostage to our own situation of our own making, and in denial about it by and large. It's really sad. It's like a runaway train headed for a cliff, and we're all on the train. A few of us are looking for the brake, but most people are desperately trying to enjoy the scenery in their last moments. It comes from selfishness, willful ignorance, and over-prioritization of emotional thinking over logical and fact-based thinking. The populace is gripped by a subtle anxiety, locked in to bad patterns as the economy dies and the American empire collapses.

We're in a gridlock status-quo that serves the MIC and related companies. And that's why the gridlock continues, because it's serving those people quite well. It's no accident or malfunction, as many mistakenly assume.

Imagine all of those disparate defense contractors building industrial robots or sensors for driverless cars...there was American innovation en masse before we were forced to spend so much GDP on warfare technology.

War is less about defense profits and more about having excuse to take enormous loans from the fed reserve to keep that scam running.

profits

take enormous loans from the fed reserve

These two things are the same at the core. Debt creation is money creation in our current debt-based fiat system.

We could have gracefully wound down the MIC back in the 60s if the movement for peace had succeeded. At this point, though, much of our economy relies on the MIC. Of the few remaining manufacturing jobs in the states, many are in support of the MIC.

Any political candidate has a hard time paring back "defense'" spending, because it would mean putting 1,000s of workers out of business. They face backlash from the lobbies and unions.

Scaling back the MIC would truly be a massive blow to our economy. This is why we are being led into ww3.

what is MIC?

Military Industrial Complex

War is a Racket (free PDF) by General Smedley Butler, the most decorated U.S. service men in history. [Only 14 pages]

~"I'm was a gangster for capatilism"

All Wars are Bankers' Wars (video)

• Rothschilds

should be required reading in school, before you enlist and for anyone that can read. War is Racket should be stickied for a bit even

Many people wouldn't enlist if they knew the truth. As a matter of fact, this pamphlet is one of the reasons why I didn't.

Looking for direct profit is probably not going to do it, but hypothetically, what would have happened if: Saddam Hussein started trading oil in the Euro instead of the US dollar, unchallenged? If the Saudis hadn't taken a loss to trade in the dollar only, in a deal with Nixon? If Libya helped create a unified North African currency backed by gold? I have no idea, but geopolitics is not a simple game. It's certainly not as simple as army goes in, money comes out. But I do think that if we didn't enforce our position as hegemon, quality of life here in the USA would see a sharp decrease, if only because we're already buried to the hilt in violence. How do you step back from that? Can you?

Most of the revenue does go to the 1%. But, does your pension plan own stock in GE, Boeing, and Westinghouse? Yes, it probably does. Most of these companies are not solely military.

The 1%, who control the pols they bribe, want us to be in war. They profit directly from it, and the profits are large, and it is difficult to argue against defense spending because of scare tactics like "look at what happened after WW1" and "China is increasing spending" etc.

The current economic system is based largely on oil. Oil is traded in dollars, so if you want oil (no oil = no transport = no economy) you need to get dollars. This forces all nations to try to sell their cars, washing machines, sugar, wood, and computers for dollars. This keeps prices low in the US, and keeps the US population happy with their toys.

You can try to work around the system. (Iran has natural gas cars) but it is hard to do, because literally everything is priced in dollars for the above reason.

You can try to sell your oil for another currency (or swap oil for doctors like Venezuela) but this will likely get you invaded or attacked economically. So the ultimate power behind the US system is military force, but they will also use other methods to try to gain the outcome that they desire. But, the other countries have been around longer than the US and they are more crafty about foreign policy than we are in some ways...more worldly and intelligent...They play the game in hard mode as do we.

You can think and say anything you like. It will change nothing. The people are doped out on pot/beer/fast food/sex/TV/games/reddit/drama/etc and do not know/care what is happening in Syria/Libya/Yemen/Sudan/Afghanistan/You-name-it. The 1% are not going to change their actions based on what you say/think. They are going to do what is best for them. They do not care about you.

The US is a country based on the violent stealing of lands from the people who lived here before we did. This is why war is good in the final analysis.

You have a way with words...

But, basically yes. We live on a earth which has physical limits. The 1% have unlimited desires. When push comes to shove, the biggest and strongest elephant wins. And the grass that is stomped upon loses. We are grass.

They're selling us lies about wars being profitable, but like you mention, it's only the 1% in the military-industrial complex that profit and the banksters.

The military spends 600 billion on weapons manufacturing. So surely that has to go back to some workers right?

That's right. I've read about that

Generally speaking, you can't stop a war because it's rather hard to look at the people fighting and say "Can't we all just get along?" without some cheeky bugger with a sniper rifle using you for target practice.

Well they could start with the failed war on drugs and enormous taxes on legalizing it, additionally they could clear the prison space for rapists and murderers.

[deleted]

They created it, they can stop it!

I know everyone wants Bernie but he wont get elected. Hillary is done. From this point there is really not many people left to choose from. Its really sad.

Wars are too good for economies to not be in wars. Just look at Nazi Germany's economy.

You are abolutely right. Think of the 10s of thousands of subcontractors making up the MIC. What would happen to them if "peace" would rule? No profits to gain, even more unemployment, you can't just build tractors instead of tanks (/s).

If there were no wars to be fought anymore, US of A would be bankrupt in 3 months. Let's drum the wardrums, it has always been this way!

Wars are the means by which the world releases the pressure of grinding diplomatic relationship between powers and products. America is only a small part of the whole thing, in which the whole world is engulfed in spurious related activities that result in coalitions and anti-coalitions between countries and other kinds of conventions and organizations like companies, churches, etc.

Take for example Ukraine. In the few times were the people of the country was introduced to the means of communication and decision, the will to power of the darkest forms of human organization released that pressure in the form of a civil war.

And yet people don't realize that and follow like sheep the official narrative.

War isn't a modern invention and there's no such thing as an era without wars. This has been the case since long before history was recorded. War waged by a nation-state is not new either, and has always been a method of promoting the interests of that state.

I do believe that all government spending should go to the military. If a flat tax is proposed by Trump or Cruz, the military is the only thing we will be able to spend money on (that would also include a freeze on spending towards non-discretionary spending and interest from the debt). Seeing that taxation is theft, and seeing that ISIS poses an existential threat to the United States, public funds should be spent wholly on the military. Nothing else.

The United States cannot handle ISIS anyway. Leave that to Russia. The US can be Russia's little helper though, if they agree to let Russia annex Alaska.

Well ISIS is real, and the goatfuckers need to be taken out any way they can. It's just that the United States is interfering with Russia's ability to take them out.

The Mujaheddin fighting against Soviet incursion in Afghanistan was real too. ISIS is a direct offshoot, just as Al Quada was. All, funded by the same sources funneled through Saudi Arabia. All, serving the same masters.

Whenever something like this comes up, I think of chapter 16 or 17 I believe of 1984 by George Orwell where he goes into detail about the requirements for and of war, the benefits, and all the logical reasons why it was necessary to keep war going. It kind of gives you a model of what "TBTB" are aiming for (and doing a damn good job at). Compile that with War is a Racket by Smedley Butler, and anyone can have a pretty solid idea about the nature of war on the grand scale in the modern era.

It appears to be a sinister economic model... as you pointed out. Maybe after American jobs were offshored to China and other slave wage places the scale of American military involvement has increased for example the First Gulf War in 1991, Somalia 1993, Yugoslavia 1999, Afghanistan 2002, Iraq 2003, Georgia 2008, 2011 Libya, Syria 2011 and Ukraine 2014. With Afghanistan and Iraq still going. Other wars in the Caribbean, Central & South America as well as Africa I do not know about.

That is probably the reason for the mixed messages coming from Washington. Not verbatim per say "We want peace and stability", "No boots on the ground", "Assad must go", "Diplomatic solution" etc. Even if the guys are lackeys they get confused too. They do not know whether to do the bidding of the arms manufacturers, "them", the people, UN and so on.

This is true. Waging war halfway around the world to secure our "freedom" sounds ridiculous when taken at face value. However, consider why it's important for other nations to hold US dollar stock and the saying takes on a serious tone.

It's not backed by gold or other precious metals. It's worth less than the paper it's printed. In fact it's worth a negative amount when the national debt, GNP/GDP, and ongoing deficits are factored. If China decided to cash in its 2 trillion US dollars, the US could not live up to its obligation.

The only reason why the US dollar continues to hold the importance it does globally is because it is the only currency accepted in exchange for oil. OPEC oil I should clarify.

When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the US aided "rebels" in damaging Russian prospects of securing Afghan oil in exchange for Russian Rubies.

When Saddam Hussein threaten to forgo the "petro-dollar", the US began Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. If Hussein had followed through, countries would have other options for purchasing oil.

When Gaddafi set out to back Libyan currency with gold and began talks with a number of other African nations about the idea of an African currency backed by precious metals, the US began Operation Oddessy Dawn and Operation Unified Protector.

When Putin began negotiations to build a natural gas pipeline running through Syria, the US began Operation Inherent Resolve. If Putin succeeds in building the pipeline, it provides a new source of energy that can be bought instead of oil, and with whatever currency Putin chooses to accept. Potentially less oil purchasing and even less need for the US dollar.

The pattern becomes very clear the more US military operations you add. Waging all these wars is about minimizing energy options to oil and assuring its exchange via petro-dollar, thereby securing the value and reason for holding the US dollar.

There are many countries who would instantly dump the US dollar if not for oil, including but not limited to Russia, Brazil and India. That would set off a domino effect with countries racing to cash out hoping to receive as much "value" out of their reserves as possible as each dumped reserve lowers the dollar value further.

The US economy would be in ruins before the end of the work day. But with so much of the worlds reliance on the US economy, a second domino effect would kick in and the economies of our largest trading partners would collapse, and that of their largest trading partners nearly simultaneously.

The world would experience a depression far greater than experienced in the 1930's to a degree of x10 on the low end of estimates.

Such an event will not only set off wars, but it could be argued many would look to the US as the culprit and enemy of their people. Russia and North Korea are already inclined to use nukes, who is to say China, Japan and others wouldn't also for ruining their countries and killing off millions of their population as an unintended resulted.

The US needs war to function.

To answer your last paragraph:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOftXua5dQk&index=11&list=PLD31E34390C5017E8

when we borrow money from the federal reserve, we have the '11th dollar problem': if the treasury has no dollars and they borrow 10 dollars from the federal reserve with 1 dollar as interest.. where does that 11th dollar come from? it doesn't exist. it must come from outside of the system. it must necessarily come from other countries, through business or through military conquest.

without continuous expansion, the system fails. russia has put a stop to the continuous expansion, therefor the system is failing.

I think whoever said that is wrong. What is correct to some degree however is that wars either with americans directly involved or through allies does bring in money to the people who own the military-industrial complex. Its simple business, ammo expenditure, missiles get fired, newer planes, more planes. But US is not alone in that, UK, France, China, Russia all profit from either active or possible wars. Countries dont feel safe so they increase military spending, buy more weapons.

Our US and EU currencies are failing. War is propping them up. Invest in Bitcoin. Be the change that ends our government's centralized banking corruption, stranglehold on the economy, need to facilitate money laundering, processing drug/gang/terrorism/child marketing money and the need for constant war to keep money flowing. Remove the economy from the governments power and put it in the people's power. Put your money in your own control and no one else's, by holding your wealth in Bitcoins. Be your own bank.

Bitcoin already uses quantum proof encryption. I think there may be a side hash or two that is being phased out to protect against this in the future, but the main algorithms are already quantum proof.

Sudden government sized mining power is a concern. Currently, the amount of miners and their hashing power is astounding, almost 15 million PetaFLOPS. Since its introduction in June 2013, China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer is currently the fastest in the world at 33.86 petaFLOPS.

While non-public computing power held secret by governments could be much more, I think it would at least be a challenge to compete with the current Bitcoin mining power without disrupting it first. Which brings us to a lingering issue of about half of Bitcoin's mining power being held in China. One could be a little nervous about the Chinese goverment suddenly blocking or taking over its citizens' hashing equipment.

In the end, Bitcoin could come together and block Chinese IP's if a state sponsored attack came from them. It would kill Bitcon's value and market perception with the ethical implications of censoring a country. Bitcoin can also roll back transactions and manipulation from successful goverment sponsored attacks, if the community was in agreement, but a blow like that would also kill Bitcoin's value and a large part of public trust.

I agree 100% with your statement. There was a recent post that stated if you cancelled the F35 all college students tuition could be paid by the savings. Better than living in mom's basement or working 3 shit jobs I'd say.

"I keep hearing this trope, that we in America have all have it easy for cheap because we're running wars all the time. "

Nope, only for the 1 percent. The average working class American getting less than 35k dollars income per year (about the median ) does NOT benefit from the wars.

Also please stop using the word "we" when you are talking about the ruling class or 1 percent.

It's not necessary. Everything this country needs can be provided by ourselves. Wars are for maintaining global power and keeping the financial scam going

The secret is that if everyone followed their own conscience rather than laws, rules, or regulations then society would be dead in a day.

America needs war to support its economy. This is why there is always a war connected with a muricans. First talibans, now ISIS and you will se that when this ISIS conflict stops, a new one will appear. And thing is war can be perceived as a natural occurence, but in these cases, it is 100% fake war, provoked and lead by US.

And in these wars the US sells weapons to their enemies, and this is how they maintain their wicked economy.

And then there is also this huge propaganda around wars. For example, if you ask a soldier, they will say their duty is honorable, because they fight for the freedom of murica, which ia ironic in so many ways. There is nothing honorable in being a soldier nowadays, you are no different that a tool and a pawn of some fat guy with a suit.

It depends on what area you live in. There are many financially oppressed states which do not greatly benefit from the military industrial complex. Then there are other areas of the country that thrive from these hotbeds of govt employees and contractors. Affluence is consolidating itself to major govt and population centers with strong banking interests.

Well they could start with the failed war on drugs and enormous taxes on legalizing it, additionally they could clear the prison space for rapists and murderers.