As a resident in Calfornia, I have been in some small way part of the military and defense manufacturing “machine”. As a machinist and fabricator and later an engineer, I have seen my fare share of what has been made here in California over the past 30 years.
Point 1….
All governments do one thing very well, they dont use the funds given to them very well. Lots of poor management and waste of money.
Point 2….
All military agency funding mentality is like kids shopping at a toys -r- us with a ATM card.
Point 3….
All weapons systems, present and past have an intrinsic beauty of mystic, technology, efficiency, and ultimate power.
The WMD that I have see and worked on, be it a M16 or Star Wars / Shuttle modules, leave me with two thoughts. A) You cannot imagine the costs involved in these projects, both above board and hidden…. it is mind boggeling in dollars spent! And the last, B) is the sence of ultimate power these objects have…. it is also mind boggeling, like a drug of intrigue or awe.
But I am a warbird nut case and also a SSBN nut case as well. I love all this beautiful hardware like alot of us do.
The glory of these objects are significant. But The the cost of these “toys” of generals, physisists and politicians must also be considered.
GY
geezz…. ill pop some bucks for a spell checkers
By: Gringo Yank - 15th August 2005 at 23:21
From 1900 to 2000….. and the winner is us!
I cant remember the source…….. but i remember the score…
Jan 1,1900 to Dec 31,1999
Total conflit casualities 178,000,000
GY
By: Ja Worsley - 13th August 2005 at 04:20
Good call GY:
I have been on the user end of some of these toys that go BANG. I have often thought of the costs involved. If they cut out much of the people doing the so called Admin work, then the defence budget would far smaller than what they currently have! Sadly if the defence agencies don’t spend what they are alloted each year, then they are given a smaller one the following year. While this is a good idea, it can produce a serious problem later on when equipment needs replacing.
I like the New Zealand idea of defence spending, one year is for the Navy, one year for the Airforce and one year for the Army on a rotational basis. Each service is allocated a minimum operational budget any more after that has to wait for their turn on the budgetry cycle (R&D, aquisitions, upgrades).
By: Funkycartel_1 - 12th August 2005 at 12:09
If only that were true… you could have kept them happy with the box the toys came in… then as dreadnought suggests, there’d be a lot more humans around if all the engineers did that.
Unfortunately, I think it’s true. Just think how many children in the word are actually happy only with “the box that the toy comes in” while the children in our places demand both the truck and the tractor. More or less is the same with big boys.
But you gave me an exellent idea for a new thread. It would be a better place to continue our discussion there…
See you later
By: Arabella-Cox - 12th August 2005 at 11:52
They need some toys anyway, like babies don’t care if you give them a tractor or a truck to play since both are toys.
If only that were true… you could have kept them happy with the box the toys came in… then as dreadnought suggests, there’d be a lot more humans around if all the engineers did that.
By: Funkycartel_1 - 12th August 2005 at 07:29
Having a similar career as an engineer in Europe I can only agree with you. However, I am in a process to lead the company I currently work in both peace and military projects. For example our experience in high-speed machining and integration of complete CAD/CAM/CIM package together with people from the local university will allow us to involve in medical applications.
Dealing with weapons technology is of course a philoshophy dilemma but in my opinion it is essential for technicians and engineers to work part of their career in the area and then transfer the technology to peaceful applications.
As for politicians and generals, it doesn’t mater what they ask for. They need some toys anyway, like babies don’t care if you give them a tractor or a truck to play since both are toys.
By: sealordlawrence - 11th August 2005 at 12:11
I dont quite understand what you mean?
By: dreadnought - 11th August 2005 at 10:58
As Eisenhower said,
“Every warship launched, every rocket fired, every gun made, signifies in the final sense, a theft from all those who hunger and are not fed, from all those who are cold and are not clothed.”
i wonder what fancy line they gonna come up with when there are 20 billion people scavenging the planet, in search for “their” right to a good life.
By: sealordlawrence - 10th August 2005 at 18:54
As Eisenhower said,
“Every warship launched, every rocket fired, every gun made, signifies in the final sense, a theft from all those who hunger and are not fed, from all those who are cold and are not clothed.”
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August 10, 2005 at 6:38 pm