Hypothetical Question of course. Who ever heard of a "Peace Dividend"?
Especially, in this day and age when 'Peace on Earth' is a marketing slogan;
and Waging War with an insurmountable mountain of "defensive weapons" is synonymous with a strong economy.
But what if?
What if such a thing were possible, and "security" was measured by height of our quality of life -- and not by the depth of our Armaments?
Rarely have the weapons of wars, healed the underlying causes of war. Yet we continue to invest in them, nonetheless. ... Because.they.make.us.feel.safe.
Now for the math portion of this public service announcement ...
from bga-aeroweb.com
Top-100 Defense Contractors 2013
[...]
In FY 2013, the DoD awarded a total of $310.14 billion in defense contracts.
from
efile.com
Tax Return Statistics (by Tax Year)
2013 135,096,000
The disarmament math:
$310,140,000,000.00
135,096,000
$2,295.70 per Taxpayer Peace Dividend annually (in 2013 stats)
IF such a thing were possible ...
Of course, we live in a world where "Peace Dividends" are little more than a hokey sentiment on Greeting Cards.
Such a thing could never happen in real life, not in this day and age;
Afterall, we have priorities; we have (inter-) national interests; We.have.COMMITMENTS:
Top-100 Defense Contractors 2013
[...]
In FY 2013, top awardee Lockheed Martin received $37.16 billion in contracts (prime contracts) or 12.0% of total contract funds awarded by the DoD. Runner-up is Boeing with $19.49 billion (6.3%) followed by Raytheon in third place with $13.18 billion (4.3%). Northrop Grumman has received $12.66 billion (4.1%) followed by General Dynamics, United Technologies, L-3 Communications, BAE Systems, SAIC, and Humana. BAE Systems, #8 on the list, was the largest foreign DoD defense contractor in FY 2013.
Prime Contractor Millions in % of Total
Lockheed Martin Corp. $37,159 12.00%
The Boeing Company $19,485 6.29%
Raytheon Company $13,175 4.25%
Northrop Grumman Corp. $12,664 4.09%
General Dynamics Corp. $12,061 3.89%
United Technologies Corp. $5,500 1.78%
L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. $5,468 1.77%
BAE Systems plc $4,796 1.55%
SAIC Inc. $4,254 1.37%
Humana Inc. $3,463 1.12%
Veritas Capital Fund II L.P. $3,077 0.99%
Health Net Inc. $2,908 0.94%
Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. $2,735 0.88%
Textron Inc. $2,712 0.88%
Bechtel Group Inc. $2,508 0.81%
General Electric Company $2,305 0.74%
Exelis Inc. $2,191 0.71%
Fluor Corp. $2,134 0.69%
Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. $2,126 0.69%
Bell-Boeing Joint Project Office $2,096 0.68%
General Atomic Technologies Corp. $2,094 0.68%
Supreme Group Holding $2,030 0.66%
Computer Sciences Corp. $1,870 0.60%
Triwest Healthcare Alliance Corp. $1,819 0.59%
Oshkosh Corp. $1,729 0.56%
Hewlett-Packard Company $1,699 0.55%
CACI International Inc. $1,530 0.49%
Sierra Nevada Corp. $1,449 0.47%
Amerisourcebergen Corp. $1,418 0.46%
Miscellaneous Foreign Contractors $1,359 0.44%
Harris Corp. $1,351 0.44%
Refinery Associates of Texas Inc. $1,340 0.43%
Alliant Techsystems Inc. $1,289 0.42%
URS Corp. $1,284 0.41%
United Launch Alliance L.L.C. $1,260 0.41%
Unitedhealth Group Inc. $1,258 0.41%
Mantech International Corp. $1,236 0.40%
Honeywell International Inc. $1,224 0.40%
A.P. Moller - Maersk A/S $957 0.31%
Cardinal Health Inc. $956 0.31%
National Fuel Inc. $917 0.30%
Atlantic Diving Supply Inc. $894 0.29%
Rockwell Collins Inc. $874 0.28%
Fedex Corp. $870 0.28%
ITT Corp. $858 0.28%
The Aerospace Corp. $813 0.26%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $808 0.26%
Total SA $794 0.26%
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. $773 0.25%
Valero Energy Corp. $751 0.24%
McKesson Corp. $738 0.24%
The Mitre Corp. $736 0.24%
Austal USA LLC $721 0.23%
Compania Espanola De Petroleos $709 0.23%
Chevron Corp. $706 0.23%
Johns Hopkins University $694 0.22%
U.S. Department of Energy $666 0.22%
Alion Science and Technology Corp. $658 0.21%
Supreme Fuels Trading $614 0.20%
World Fuel Services Corp. $612 0.20%
Patriot Team $598 0.19%
Motor Oil (Hellas) Corinth Refineries $596 0.19%
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corp. $578 0.19%
Rolls-Royce Group plc $578 0.19%
S-Oil Corp. $578 0.19%
Express Scripts Holding Company $564 0.18%
Mission Essential Personnel LLC $564 0.18%
Government of Canada $560 0.18%
Kuwait Petroleum Corp. $558 0.18%
World Airways Inc. $558 0.18%
Rosoboronexport $554 0.18%
Wyle Services Corp. $540 0.17%
Exxon Mobil Corp. $539 0.17%
World Fuel Services Europe Ltd $507 0.16%
The Bahrain Petroleum Company $503 0.16%
Maritime Helicopter Support Company $491 0.16%
Finmeccanica Spa $471 0.15%
Royal Dutch Shell plc $465 0.15%
AAR Corp. $459 0.15%
Environmental Chemical Corp. $456 0.15%
The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory $448 0.14%
Abu Dhabi National Oil Company $437 0.14%
McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Co. $434 0.14%
Cubic Corp. $434 0.14%
KBR Inc. $412 0.13%
Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass $402 0.13%
Aecom Technology Corp. $392 0.13%
Hellfire Systems LLC $375 0.12%
International Business Machines Corp. $363 0.12%
Gazpromneft-Aero Kyrgyzstan LLC $358 0.12%
CGI Technologies and Solutions Inc. $352 0.11%
DRS Technical Services Inc. $346 0.11%
NANA Regional Corp. $339 0.11%
Chugach Alaska Corp. $335 0.11%
Battelle Memorial Institute Inc. $331 0.11%
Johns Hopkins Health System Corp. $331 0.11%
Metlife Inc. $330 0.11%
Cerberus Capital Management L.P. $324 0.10%
Chemring Group plc $324 0.10%
EADS N.V. $324 0.10%
AT&T Inc. $318 0.10%
hAPPY hOLIDAYS eVERYONE!
Don't forget the reason, for the season.
Were number one. As it should be. That kind of thing doesn't happen by accident.
... Or does it?