While the rest of the country has gone to Hell over the last ten years, the Pentagon has been untouched. While unemployment and outsourcing of jobs to China surged, the US military budget ballooned. When the global economy crashed due to Wall Street malfeasance in 2008, the Department of Defense was spared all pain. When millions and millions of Americans were added to food stamp programs, the war machine didn't even hiccup. Which makes today's Pentagon assessment that China will pose a threat to economic security because it is copying our weapons the laugher of the week.
Fresh from the Reuters news service:
The Pentagon, in its annual assessment to Congress of China's military, flagged sustained investment last year in advanced missile technologies and cyber warfare capabilities and warned that Chinese spying threatened America's economic security.
"Chinese actors are the world's most active and persistent perpetrators of economic espionage," the report said.
"Chinese attempts to collect U.S. technological and economic information will continue at a high level and will represent a growing and persistent threat to U.S. economic security."
Now for some graphs, conveniently taken from this week's blog posts, on the real threats to economic security.
First, on outsourcing of employment, much of which went to China, from the Congressional Research Institute:
Second, unemployment plotted against escape from taxation of the US high upper class:
Third, US abandonment of strategic rare earth mining for modern technologies to China:
Essentially what has happened is that the US has abandoned all manufacturing with low profit margin to China. That means all household dry goods, consumer electronics and toys but not big ticket items like weapons, jet engines, automobiles, expensive health care equipment with no room for error and aircraft.
The Pentagon and the arms manufacturing industry, or the self-licking ice cream cone, is only interested in the weapons part. Wouldn't want anything to trump our Weapons Shops of Isher.
"The United States could be in for a surprise in 2013-15 if 'China successfully exploits it extensive cyber-espionage efforts and unveils new weapons systems that are on par with U.S. systems,' said Capital Alpha Partners LLC, a investment analysis group, in a research note on the Pentagon report," reads the Reuters report.
Yes, that's something that threatens the very existence of the vanishing middle class, no doubt about it.
All right boys! You're really on top of things. If you keep doing what you're doing, eventually there won't be anything left to defend.
Cream pies for Pentagon analysts now on order.
Originally published at Dick Destiny blog.
