The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities

The war in Iraq is a strategic and moral disaster. But one issue relating to the war that hasn’t been addressed in depth is its impact on the U.S. economy. In the first of a series of research papers that will consider this issue, Robert Pollin and Heidi Garrett-Peltier consider the impact of military spending versus spending on a series of peaceful priorities -- including health care, education, and energy conservation -- on job creation in the U.S. The study finds, for example, that while investing a billion dollars of tax revenue in the military creates 8,500 jobs, investing the same amount in education or mass transit yields more than twice that number of jobs. This study is co-sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies and Women’s Action for New Directions.