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Is Military Spending the Right Route to Jobs? An Updated Analysis

Given the recent attention to potential cuts to the federal defense budget, UMass Amherst Economics Professor Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier ’10 PhD of the Political Economy Research Institute revisit their assessment of the employment-creation potential of military spending. As in the previous editions of this study (2007 and 2009), they find, unequivocally, that government spending on the military is a far weaker engine of job growth than are investments in clean energy, health care, or education, and is even weaker than spending the same amount on household consumption. Pollin and Garrett-Peltier also find that alternative productive investments create a much larger number of jobs across all pay ranges. (AOL, Times Argus (Vt.), Alter Net, 11/29/11; Lawyers, Guns and Money, 11/30/11; CBSNews.com, 11/4/11; CNN.com, 11/3/11)

>> Download “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities: 2011 Update”

 

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