Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Little Joe who wrote (149848)	11/12/2010 2:03:40 PM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541777

I slept thru it. Them. Gets boring after a while. First one for me was the Nam peace dividend. Managed to stay awake for a few years, waiting, waiting. Toothpicks holding up eyelids, boxes of NoDoze, all that. === BUSINESS FORUM: THE PEACE DIVIDEND; What to Do With the Cold War Money By SEYMOUR MELMAN; Seymour Melman is professor emeritus of industrial engineering at Columbia University, and chairman of the National Commission for Economic Conversion and Disarmament in Washington. Published: December 17, 1989 THE idea of a 'peace dividend' first surfaced in 1969. A Cabinet Coordination Committee was set up to report to President Lyndon B. Johnson on what the Federal Government should do with its savings when the War in Vietnam finally ended. The committee proposed that the Federal Government dedicate $39.7 billion a year from its savings - in 1969 dollars - for the upkeep of the infrastructure. The peace dividend was to provide money for roads, clean air, education, housing and foreign economic aid. But the war in Vietnam dragged on into the 1970's and the political energies needed to realize a peace dividend were exhausted. As a result, President Johnson's plans were never implemented and critical areas of our infrastructure, manufacturing sector and educational system fell into disrepair. nytimes.com === The 'Peace Dividend': A Rubber Check By Jim Sasser; Jim Sasser, Democrat of Tennessee, is chairman of the Senate Budget Committee. Published: December 19, 1989 WASHINGTON— In what is being billed by the Administration as a victory for 'deficit reduction,' the Pentagon is settling for a fiscal 1991 budget of $292 billion. This nod toward fiscal responsibility follows Administration announcements that it is contemplating dramatic Pentagon reductions in response to the relaxation of world tensions: $180 billion in cuts over four years; cuts of up to 290,000 from the nation's 2.1 million troops; a cut of some 23,000 jobs from the 580,000-strong procurement bureacracy. On the basis of those promised economies, we are seriously debating the question of what to do with the 'peace dividend.' But how can we speak of a peace dividend with a military budget of $292 billion? (Obama requested $708B for '11; dividends compounding nicely)The peace dividend, as currently constituted, is a rubber check. The $292 billion defense budget for fiscal 1991 actually represents an increase of some $5 billion from 1990. It would save only about $4.7 billion from current inflation-adjusted spending levels - a mere fraction of the $40 billion to $60 billion we'll need to hit next year's deficit target under Gramm-Rudman nytimes.com