Great ideas go nowhere

Almost forty years ago John Kenneth Galbraith (a great and wonderful economist) suggested that the defense industry should be nationalized. This idea which, of course, went nowhere, has resurfaced in an article by Charlie Gray and Lee Drutman (in a Seattle journal somewhere). There is an article by John Stanton on Smirking Chimp today that deals with this. Everyone should read it. Nationalizing defense, what an absolutely marvelous and basic idea. What could possibly more important to the nation than its defense? So why should defense be privatized rather than nationalized? If it were nationalized it would remove wars for profit (like the current "war" in Iraq). Think about it. Who is benefitting from the "war" in Iraq? You? The country? The citizens? Of course not. The only ones benefitting are those in the military-industrial complex - Boeing, GE, Halliburton, the Carlyle Group, etc. Why should the defense industry not benefit the nation and its citizens rather than private corporations? Think of the thousands of lobbyists that would (happily, for us) be out of work. They would not be needed, at least not in the obscene numbers that now exist. Is not the defense of the nation something that ought to be important enough not to be left to the vagaries of the marketplace, to those who seek it merely for profit? There are things that are simply too important to be left to the private sector: energy, water, air, education, health care, and defense surely should qualify as things that should be done in the public interest, not the private interests of profit driven corporations. Of course in the current political milieu that wants to privatize everything, nationalization, however sensible and basic, will never happen. First of all they will all cry "socialism," as they have managed over the years to make that a dirty word. When people talk of socialism why don't they think of Norway and Sweden, and now Venezuela, instead of Karl Marx and Lenin? Because they have been brainwashed over the years into thinking things that are just not so.

But think carefully about this. Privatization, in its very essence, is opposed to the national interest, and the primary interests of its citizens. By definition it places the public interest (the public good) below that of private corporations. Everything is to be done for profit, not for the public well-being. Is it not true that for the past almost six years of the Bush/Cheney administration every major decision has favored corporate rather than public interests?

The sad truth is, our major high-level Republican politicians have no interest in our nation or its citizens. They only have corporate interests in mind. Democrats at the highest levels are not much better, although I believe if Democrats had the power they most probably would at least try to pass some form of universal health care and raise the minimum wage - two things Republicans will never do.

Our obscenely bloated national defense budget is a disgrace. The military-industrial complex has taken over our lives, and not in ways that benefit we citizens. Something has to be done. Nationalizing the defense industry would be a wonderful and sensible solution. But who is sensible nowadays?