COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

I like the graphic and what it is pointing out ... simply that there is a $553 billion element in the discretionary spending that goes to military (DoD, VA, DHS) and this explains to some extent how so many police departments have some pretty impressive riot kit. +Will Manske is raising another separate issue, and in my view has it completely wrong. There is a need for change in how resources are allocated, and in my view a focus on addressing needs should be the main focus. Making profit is desirable, but economic activity above all else should be to satisfy needs. The profit model capitalist market system has completely run down the easily monetized assets of governments, corporations and families and there is nowhere else to go to get increased aggregate demand from people buying more and more stuff and services they don't need, but there is a huge potential for economic activity that is valueadd and satisfies the needs of people at the individual and community level, and the society at a broader national and global level. Profit, GDP and stock market prices are inadequate measures in a modern smart society ... we need to be thinking in terms of valueadd and the maintenance and improvement of quality of life. Technology is amazing ... but most of what we do is being done on infrastructure that was new in the middle of the last century. Let's get serious about a future that is really full of opportunity rather than trying to recreate a past that has demonstrably failed.