02-05-2008, 11:32 AM
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Confirmed User
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: GFY
Posts: 5,176
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http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,830184,00.html
Quote:
Friday, Apr. 26, 1963
The Solicitous Giant
The men who run the U.S. Defense Department, said Deputy Defense Secretary Roswell L. Gilpatric in a recent speech, "sometimes feel like a Gulliver among the Lilliputians." Spending upward of $50 billion a year, nearly 10% of the entire gross national product, the Defense Department is an economic giant that dwarfs the biggest of corporations. Its decisions on where and how to spend its money can mean prosperity or pinch for business firms, cities and entire regions.
The Piano Impact. The explosive postwar prosperity of California has largely resulted from a widening share of the Pentagon's contract awards. California currently accounts for 24% of the dollar value of all prime defense contracts, as against 14% a decade ago and less than 10% during World War II. The defense business concentrated along Route 128 in the Boston area has enabled Massachusetts to recover from the textile industry's migration to the South. But Midwest defense business has dwindled drastically, leaving pockets of economic slack and high unemployment. Five Great Lakes states, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, produced 32% of the nation's defense output during World War II; today the figure is a meager 12%. During that span, Michigan's share of total defense production has plummeted from 10.5% to 2.7%, and the state for several years has been in financial distress.
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ICQ 557504926
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