Why is it that the people can be against the war and the legislature continues to vote for it? I feel the answer is obvious. The defense industry effectively buys the legislator’s vote by the defense expenditure in the legislator’s district. The legislator then decides based on need for job in his district verses need and cost of the war. This cost includes all cost including lives lost in battle. The legislator then decides to vote for war or not based on cost of war verse need for jobs in his district. You see in effect the defense industry buys his vote through the money they spend in his district. The legislator’s decision should be based on cost of war verse geopolitical gain for the nation and fact that jobs will be created in his district should not be considered.
There is a way to eliminate the creation of job in his district from influencing the legislator’s reasoning. But first we need to discuss why there is this link. The defense industry has built into the system that all defense procurements must be done through USA based companies. This forces all defense expenditure to be done in USA and their expenditure will likely wind up in the legislator’s district. The justification for this rule is USA government does not want other countries from profiting from USA tax dollars. There is a way around this conflict. And that is through treaties etc. multiple countries could agree to spread their defense spending over all countries involved in the treaty. Then each legislator could not be sure voting for war will increase defense spending in his district and as a result then just make his decision for war based on cost of war verse geopolitical gain for the nation.
It is this solution I propose. Multiple nations agree to spread their defense spending over all nation involved in the treaty thereby reducing the likelihood that the legislator’s vote for war will increase the creation of defense jobs in his district. This in turn will cause the legislator to decide on war based on cost of war verse geopolitical gains for the nation. The effect of this will be to reduce the power of the defense industry from influencing public policy over starting or continuing a war and essentially reduce the possibility of the nation from being in an unnecessary war.
To all reader. Here is a solution. Please do your part and spread the word. Together we can create positive change.