On Thu, 14 Aug 2008 08:08:57 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:


"hk" wrote in message
...

Indeed, a colossal waste of taxpayer money...a 600-ship Navy. Boys and
their toys.



That's an interesting statement, coming from you.

How about all the union civilian yardbird jobs lost due to a major reduction
in military spending?
Ship building, maintenance, repairs, upgrades.

How about the union jobs lost at Pratt and Whitney and GE because a
reduction by 75% of aircraft carriers results in far fewer aircraft and
their associated repairs and engine replacements?

How about the union jobs lost in avionics, navigation, weapons systems? I
know from my working experience that almost all of these programs have
multi-tiered participants in industry. Companies like Raytheon may be the
prime, but they issue millions, if not billions of subcontracts to smaller
companies (like the one I had) to supply services, equipment, etc. to
support their programs.

I also recall a serious concern about major military contractors like
Raytheon losing their technical and structured manufacturing capabilities
due to reductions in military spending on new systems. It came down to a
handful of major contractors who, if they were forced to lay off people
commensurate with Carter's reduction in military spending, becoming unable
to respond technically and manufacturing wise to future threats due to lost
talent and scrapped projects.

Reagan's policies helped prevent all the above.

Retraining - we need to retrain all these painters, carpenters,
riggers, stage, crane operators, plumbers and make them all computer
engineers and technicians, doctors, lawyers and nurses.

Oh and pay them $34/hr while doing it.