Swords into plowshares: military conversion for the 1990s

USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), Jan, 1994 by Judith Braffman-Miller

Weiss noted that "our economic reliance on the military results in a severe ~brain drain' of our most advanced technical workers away from civilian fields. Currently, 75% of all Federal R&D funds are spent in the military budget. A large percentage of all scientists and engineers are devoted to military related work. In practical terms, this means that many of our trained scientists and engineers are seeking to devise more complex and destructive military equipment while U.S. productivity is lagging in important areas such as scientific research, computer technology, machine tools, and other domestic areas."

A peace-oriented economy

After struggling with a war-oriented economy for the past 50 years, Americans can look forward to a peace-oriented one that will include military conversion. This would make possible the physical reconstruction of U.S. industry, environment, and infrastructure that have been worn down during this era. In 1982, the editors of US. News and World Report considered that the disintegrating infrastructure of the U.S. could be repaired at a price of 2.5 trillion dollars. American annual military budgets for 1980-90 were well above 2.9 trillion dollars.

With the defense budget cut, the savings could be invested in roads and highways, advanced communications networks and research, schools, and bridges. The liberated funds also could be transferred from the military to develop new environmental technology, creating sophisticated systems to recycle, clean air and water, treat toxic waste, update city sewage systems, and produce new, clean-energy resources.

Hence, the people, technologies, and skills that once went into defense can be transferred to the commercial infrastructure necessary for the US. to compete in a global economy. Investment in civilian high-tech applied R&D correspondingly will increase as the need for defense R&D dwindles. Thus, millions of high-wage jobs will be created, making the transition from a war-oriented economy to a peace-oriented, or commercial, one much easier.

While the past decade reflected the fastest and largest sustaining of U.S. military expenditure ever, the 1990s will produce a steady and continuous reduction of military expenditure and forces. The military portion of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product almost certainly will plummet from its late 1980s high of six percent to around three percent by the latter part of this decade.

The first of the post-Cold War presidents, Bin Clinton, has asserted that "Many of the skills and technologies required to rebuild America are similar to those now used in defense industries." Further, the Clinton Administration promises to "encourage companies that bid on projects to rebuild the [U.S.] to contract work to, or purchase, existing defense facilities . . . [and] will order the Pentagon to conduct a national defense-jobs inventory to assist displaced workers ... [and] provide special conversion loans and grants to small business defense contractors."

Specifically, the Administration seeks to utilize early retirement and a prorated pension for military personnel with between 15 and 20 years of service in order to encourage downsizing. Furthermore, it recommends urging states to offer incentives such as alternative certification programs for military personnel who retire in order to take jobs in key professions like education, health, and law enforcement.