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=> Capitalism's Complexes
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Posted by
Tiglath
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- Saturday, October 28 2006, 7:39:30 (CEST) from 220.239.110.183 - c220-239-110-183.eburwd3.vic.optusnet.com.au  Australia -  Windows XP -  Internet ExplorerWebsite: Website title: |
THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX President Dwight Eisenhower coined the term "military-industrial complex"The term military-industrial complex (MIC) refers to a close and symbiotic relationship between a nation's armed forces, its arms industry, and associated political and commercial interests. In such a system, the military is dependent on industry to supply materiel and other support, while the defense industry depends on government for a steady revenue stream. The term is most often used in reference to the United States, where it was coined in a speech by President Dwight Eisenhower. As pejorative terms, the "MIC" or the "iron triangle" refer to an institutionalised collusion among defense contractors (industry), The Pentagon (military), and the United States government (Congress, Executive branch), as a cartel that works against the public interest, whose motivation is profiteering. THE MILITARY-PETROLEUM COMPLEX It has seemed clear to me for a long time that the Second Iraq War was ultimately an early salvo in the war for control of oil, or more accurately energy, supply for the future. The Military-Industrial Complex that we have all been talking about for decades was always the Military-Petroleum Complex because the industry of modern industrial society is completely dependent on a virtually unlimited supply of cheap oil. As time goes on I see more comments along these lines and eventually we will all understand it to be true. Unfortunately, that may be after we have also come to the realization that there is a limited supply of cheap oil and we have used it all up. THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL-COMPLEX Over 1.8 million people are currently behind bars in the United States. This represents the highest per capita incarceration rate in the history of the world. In 1995 alone, 150 new U.S. prisons were built and filled. This monumental commitment to lock up a sizeable percentage of the population is an integral part of the globalization of capital. Several strands converged at the end of the Cold War, changing relations between labor and capital on an international scale: domestic economic decline, racism, the U.S. role as policeman of the world, and growth of the international drug economy in creating a booming prison/industrial complex. And the prison industrial complex is rapidly becoming an essential component of the U.S. economy. THE MEDICAL-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX The most important health-care development of the day is the recent, relatively unheralded rise of a huge new industry that supplies health-care services for profit. Proprietary hospitals and nursing homes, diagnostic laboratories, home-care and emergency-room services, hemodialysis, and a wide variety of other services produced a gross income to this industry last year of about $35 billion to +40 billion. This new "medical-industrial complex" may be more efficient than its nonprofit competition, but it creates the problems of overuse and fragmentation of services, overemphasis on technology, and "cream-skimming," and it may also exercise undue influence on national health policy. In this medical market, physicians must act as discerning purchasing agents for their patients and therefore should have no conflicting financial interests. Closer attention from the public and the profession, and careful study, are necessary to ensure that the "medical-industrial complex" puts the interest of the public before those of its stockholders. --------------------- |
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