Dear Editor,
The big issue for political candidates these days is how to get jobs to the huge numbers of unemployed. However, there would be plenty of funds available to create meaningful jobs in our communities, but there are not because of the U.S. Military.
The U.S. military is the biggest employer of Americans and non-Americans as well. Over 1,400,000 Americans are now on active duty, and another 833,000 are in the reserves, many full time. Another 1,600,000 Americans work in companies that supply the military with weapons to utensils. This is all paid with U.S. tax dollars. Then consider all the hospital bills that must be paid for tens of thousands of wounded vets. Some will never work again and must rely on tax payers for the rest of their lives. Hundreds of retired military officers receive entitlements galore all courtesy of the tax payers, which is money that could be used for meaningful employment for young Americans.
It is known that fewer jobs are created through military spending than through civilian spending because military spending is capital intensive. For example, for every $1 billion either 25,000 military jobs could be created , but with that same amount of money, 47,000 health care jobs could be created.
Tax money spent to create military jobs creates more and more unemployment. We have created an economy that is dependent on military spending. This means we must either initiate wars or sell weapons to other countries, some of which are ruled by cruel dictators, if we are to have some sort of economy and employment.
We need to use tax payer money to create jobs that build up peoples' lives, not destroy them.
Rev. Don Timmerman