Summary: As the vise tightens on government spending, even DoD will feel the pressure. History suggests that DoD’s leaders will consider military pay and benefits as high on the list of expenses to cut. A recent think-tanks hints as much. Mackenzie Eaglen wrote a major paper for the Heritage Foundation: “U.S. Defense Spending: The Mismatch …
Do we overpay the members of our armed services? Read More »
Summary: Will the people on the right, aflame with deficit-cutting fervor, cut the 25 – 30% of the government’s budget spent on defense (DoD, nukes, vets, pensions, foreign intelligence)? Without doing so it’s unlikely the budget can be balanced, esp when interest rates normalize (easily doubling interest costs to 12% of the budget).  Some say …
Nicely said, by Nick Gillespie in article #2 below: ‘There is a looming showdown in American society between public-sector employees and the rest of us, in terms of job security and, especially, unsustainable gold-plated retirement and health benefits that are working hard to bankrupt whole states.” The massive underfunding of public pension systems results — …
Part V of this series provoked many emails requesting more symptoms showing the decline of the State (DOTS) in America. I wish all the questions I received were so easy to answer. This essay will give some general background and a specific example. The ur-text for DOTS is Martin van Creveld’s The Rise and Decline …
