Defense Spending Creates Fewer Jobs Than Other Types of Spending

Note that nobody is saying that we should eliminate defense spending.

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/11/guest-post-confirmed-defense-spending-creates-fewer-jobs-than-other-types-of-spending.html

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Yesterday, I pointed out that a study by one of the leading economic modeling companies shows that military spending increases unemployment and decreases economic growth.

I have located (giant hat tip to Gordon) a paper by economist Robert Pollin published in 2007 by The Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst – entitled “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities” – which concludes:

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The authors compare the effects of a $1 billion military investment military and the same investment in clean energy, health care, education, or individual tax cuts. They show that non-military investments create a much larger number of jobs across all pay ranges. With a large share of the federal budget at stake, Pollin and Garrett-Peltier make a strong case that non-military spending priorities can create significantly greater opportunities for decent employment throughout the U.S. economy than spending the same amount of funds with the military.

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