War and the economy

[U.S. Patriot]

From what I have read and heard there are more Government jobs then civilian. With the war going on defense contractors and such are doing a lot of business. So, it really makes me wonder. I want to see the war end, and our Men and Women come home. I wonder though if it would have a negative affect on an already weak economy. Thoughts, views, etc?

 

[Disposable Heart]

Having done some hiring (and unfortunately firing) at various positions so far, a TON of the applicants were soldiers. I would say about half at one company and 3/4 at another I have worked for. Generally, they have only the skill set they learned from military service, which can be good or completely unrelated to the position they are being interviewed for. I would say quite a few of them signed up for the job listed and I had interviewed because they thought civvie life was like the military: Want a new job? Grow into it or learn a new skill set, taught by the military. ALOT of them went home angry with me because their skill set didn't even close to match the position.

I think the number of troops returning is significant in regards to a "influx" of workers, but I think its not as large a number as I had thought.

I will say one thing: Any of the vets I have hired were one of two things, either absolutely top notch workers that respected you and what you needed from them, you just need to respect them back. Or they were complete junk heads, unable to cope with "civvie" life or were alcoholics using the "war" as an excuse for their destructive and unprofessional behavior.

I believe the impact is a few fold: The psychiatry services of the nation will benefit, manufacturing will get a new group of hard working individuals. But I think the total effect will not be as large as folks think...

 

[dross]

Start with one dollar. That dollar must first come from production, the private sector. Take thirty cents of that dollar and use it to fund the government, including all those government workers. That leaves 70% to go back into production, to produce future dollars. Thirty cents isn't enough, however, to pay for all the government we want, so we borrow dollars from the future to pay for all those government workers we have now. This works wonderfully until the future gets here. The future is already here for all the dollars we've already borrowed in the past. In fact, the future arrives every day, and gets bigger and bigger. A big part of paying for the government we have right now, including the borrowing, is paying for the future we used in the past.

So, less war might feel like it's hurting the economy today, but that's less pain we'll feel in the future.

 

[Leadeye]

Government is the economy now. All the money they spend doesn't just go away somewhere. It all goes to employ somebody somehow. I've never seen the numbers but you really can't consider the people who make power chairs or deliver medical oxygen private sector as most all thier business is tied to medicare. Drug companies are in as deep as the people who make military hardware. There really is little "private sector" for these people to go to when you cut back government spending. I wish I had a solution but I just see things cratering at the end of a ballistic trajectory.