Waste and War

Here is a "discovery" I made recently. It is simple although its consequences are immense. It is this: Waste, as in government waste, and war are not accidents, not marginalities as I think economists would say, not incidental to our political system. Rather, they are, both of them, integral parts of that system, necessary parts of the that system, indispensable variables for maintaining our system.

Hence, when candidates talk about eliminating "waste" in government spending, they are either (a) employing meaningless rhetoric or (b) proposing, even if they don't know it, a revolution in our system of government. Without wasteful spending, the system we live under would not work, could not work. It is waste, e.g., waste in spending on "defense", that keeps the skids greased, the wheels turning, the pot boiling. Without this waste, the military industrial complex would be impossible.

Similarly with war. Wars don't just happen, and they aren't the result of inexorable forces, either social or political. Rather, they happen because, like waste, the system needs war to keep going, to "work." Without war, our political system would come to an end, government would lose its purpose, and our institutions would become inert.

Now, just entertain for a few minutes the idea that these arguments above are correct. We have a system that needs waste and war in order to exist, in order to operate. Without waste and war, the system fails, it stops, it breaks or is broken. What an uplifting thought: We have created a political system that only works by wasting vast sums of money and waging wars continually.