Disarmament, Unemployment, Budgets and Inflation

Abstract

One of the most important considerations which impedes the reduction of the defence budget to a level that makes sense even from a military point of view is the fear of unemployment. Even most militarists are willing to concede, if pressed, that retaining 20 000 nuclear warheads and building more attack submarines makes little sense when 1000 nuclear bombs would be sufficient to destroy civilization, and additional submarines would be of little use in the event of hostilities with Saddam Hussein, Qadhafi, Mobutu or North Korea. Yet the representative from New London or the senators from Connecticut may well feel that their political future is tied up with the fate of workers on submarines at the Electric Boat Company in Groton.