The U.S. Still Leans on the Military-Industrial Complex

The U.S. Still Leans on the Military-Industrial Complex
The United States, after all, has 10 aircraft carriers in active service versus just one
for China, although China has a bigger manufacturing industry than the United States.
Roughly 10 percent of the $2.2 trillion in factory output in the United States goes into the
production of weapons sold mainly to the Defense Department for use by the armed forces.
In the summer of 1945, after nearly five years of wartime rationing, the civilian population of the United States was starved for new cars
and appliances, new clothing and shoes, and new homes and their furnishings.
Given the history of recent decades, is it any wonder
that we now have a president who, at least in part, equates “making America strong again” with an enhanced military equipped with the weaponry that an enhanced military requires
So did the production of other civilian products — leaving behind weapons bought by
the Defense Department as an ever bigger share of the nation’s factory output.
Whatever the case, America’s weapons production is still far greater than China’s, while China has burnished
its reputation as a manufacturer of civilian goods for export and, increasingly, for its own citizens.