Fixing our Veterans Crisis with Economic Revitalization

 

By Chad Pillai.

 

The song “Wrong Side of Heaven” by the Band Five Finger Death Punch is a great piece that highlights our ongoing crisis regarding our care for veterans after over a decade of combat – combat that will continue for the foreseeable future as we begin our campaign against ISIS.  The statistics used in the video are nothing but heartbreaking: Over 300,000 veterans are sleeping on the streets with another 1.4 million at risk of being homeless, and 67% of those homeless veterans have served at least 3 years; divorce rates in the military have increased 42%; and there are approximately 460,000 veterans suffering from PTSD with about 5,000 of them taking their lives each year, which is about 1 veteran every 2 hours.

Compounding the problem is an underfunded Veterans Administration rocked by scandal for inadequate medical care resulting in at least 19 reported deaths.  Finally, as a Defense One article from May 2014 reports,  “there remains a growing pool of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans whose unemployment rate still outpaces both their civilian counterparts and veterans of previous conflicts.”  While some can argue with specific statistics, no one can argue with the fact that our veterans face a crisis that requires the nation to unite in order to provide real solutions.

Today’s veterans face a very different environment than those of the Greatest Generation. After WWII, our veterans came home to the most industrialized economy in the world with no real competition from Europe and Asia whose economies were decimated.  Demand for US goods both domestically and internationally, as a result of US redevelopment programs like the Marshall Plan, created the conditions for full employment – and created a strong position for U.S. labor to negotiate higher wages and benefits.

Additionally, programs like the G.I. Bill provided veterans the opportunities to improve themselves and their families.  These conditions allowed the expansion of the middle class and decades of prosperity.  As Western Europe and Japan recovered, the competitive advantage U.S. labor enjoyed began to fade.  Then, as China transformed its economy and as U.S. manufacturers shifted overseas to cheaper labor markets, industrialize manufacturing jobs previously available to veterans, and our middle class, began to evaporate.  While the U.S. economy has structurally changed in the face of global competition, there are opportunities.  Today, there are over 600,000 skilled manufacturing jobs unfilled and employers are seeking veterans to fill those positions.  While this is good, more should and can be done!

The biggest obstacle to resolving our crisis has been our political partisanship and the associated rigid ideologies.  We recognize the homeless issues with veterans, the rise in food stamp use among military families, and the need to provide greater funding to the veteran administration; however, Congress, especially the House of Representatives, have cut vital social safety net programs like food assistance to appease those who view people who utilize such programs as social parasites stealing from the working class without acknowledging that a large population of those social parasites are indeed veterans who gave their all on behalf of their nation.   While these social safety net programs are important along with efforts by profit and nonprofit organizations, these are merely short-term band aids compared to what could be achieved.

Unlike my Conservative and Libertarian friends, and someone who has read Adam Smith, I believe that the Government can lead private-public partnership programs that can help veterans rely less on the social safety net and more on future productive employment – not threatened by China’s low wage labor market.  In the globalized economy, our government is as much a player in the system as are private enterprise since we are competing with more mercantile nations such as China.  As a result, the government needs to focus on its competitive advantages vis-à-vis our global competitors.  I believe the three areas the U.S. can gain a competitive economic advantage:  energy independence, space exploration, and critical infrastructure.

In October 2013 in my article “Challenge the Free Market” I highlighted how the U.S. can use its massive purchasing power to ignite competition to ensure U.S. energy independence.  My thesis was that the Department of Defense, through its Green Energy Initiative, could create greater demand for innovation and production by the private sector as a result of compressing timelines and increasing qualitative demands.

The next area where the U.S. can regain its advantage is from low-earth and deep space exploration.  My two previous articles on how to repair our space program for exploration while encouraging greater commercialization are my proposed solutions for creating a new and profitable economic sector.  NASA’s recent contract announcement with Boeing and Space X is a step in the right direction.

The third and last element of our national economic revival is focusing on our critical infrastructure: road, rail, port, and urban renewal.  The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates our infrastructure will need $3.6 trillion to fully repair.  This situation creates potential opportunities for investors, and this past year, Douglas L. Peterson made that recommendation in his CNBC article “That pile of cash? Invest it in US infrastructure” Based on my own experiences in Iraq, I also recommended a program to rebuild American cities utilizing the experiences of veterans who did stabilization and reconstruction work.

I am not naïve to believe these efforts will be cheap but if done correctly, they will be far cheaper in the long run by using free market principles and creating less demand for the social safety net.  My four recommended principles are:

  • First, request the private sector to fill a large order (demand) such as installing solar panels on every military building and family home.
  • Second, put a specific timeline that makes it hard for the current private sector to meet with its current production capability of domestic manufacturing and installation of the required products in less than two years.
  • Third, incentivize future contract upgrades by requesting that the private sector meet a goal that exceeds their current technological capacity such as requesting all new non-tactical vehicles exceed current mileage capabilities by 20%, thereby enticing greater research and development.
  • And finally, offer bonuses for companies that meet demands to standard that are under-budget and faster than the contract specifies.  This means that the government doesn’t need to offer tax credits or subsidies.

It doesn’t distort the free market – it challenges it to perform.  The Government doesn’t pick winners; the free market does by whichever private enterprise(s) meets the standard(s).  It also means the government shouldn’t create large bureaucracies to manage these programs.  In fact, there is the potentiality for overall spending reduction and greater efficiency by enforcing contract management and oversight within existing federal entities, to include DoD.

So, how will these proposals address the crisis our veterans are facing?  By creating the economic conditions that will demand the specific skill set veterans possess not only in technical areas, but in non-tangibles such as teamwork and leadership.  In addition, it will provide the means for veterans, especially those that are homeless and unemployed, to regain their sense of honor and purpose in life.  This will require the nation to unite behind a common cause: rebuilding America and taking care of our Veterans.  Too often, many speak of their support for the troops when they return home; however, when it comes to providing the resources necessary to provide real opportunities for productive employment, such resources are lacking due to political partisanship and rigid ideologies. This has to change because the only time our veterans should be on the wrong side of heaven is when they are fighting in battles far away for our freedoms, not when they come home.

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