Can You Imagine a Peace Economy

by Patrick Foran, Organizing Intern

Foreign Policy Begins At Home is the name of two important books in the American political canon. The earliest book – written by James P. Warburg – was released during World War II in 1944; the second was released just last year by Richard N. Haass.

What is implied in that title – which is now a truism – is the understanding that the first line of defense for a nation is a free prosperous society, one underpinned on economic, social, and political justice. Foreign policy is actually domestic policy.

How we define security is important and needs to be widened to include domestic needs. Imagine if we reallocated even half of our bloated defense budget every year. No really, can you even imagine $300 billion dollars going to strengthen social security, upgrade our 20th century infrastructure, or improve and grow public schools? What about to fund public housing or a single payer health care system? Imagine the cumulative good that this would create as opposed to the cumulative destruction that war – and those who profit off it – impose on populations across the world.

A peace economy would look light-years different than the one we currently have, which in many ways can in fact be described as a war economy. A close detailed analysis of the U.S. federal defense budget shows that half of every U.S. tax dollar goes to defense and national security related programs, including debts that are continuing to accrue due to past wars and the life-long healthcare needs of returning veterans.

Richard J. Barnet of the Institute for Policy Studies way back in 1969 wrote: “Nations, like families, reveal themselves through budgets” and almost half a century later the Pentagon budget reveals that not much has changed. Instead of focusing on the human needs of our population, as Barnet passionately wrote, “the Economy of Life in America has been starved to feed the Economy of Death.”

My main point is this: a peace economy is possible, if we want it. We are still living in the wealthiest country on earth, we have the largest GDP in the world, and our citizenry is overwhelmingly war weary and also one that knows that foreign policy begins at home and begins with a priority shift; one that features a budget that is proportionate to our needs, values and threats. Our biggest threat just might be ourselves, as it always has seemed to be.

President Barack Obama often talks about how we have to have balance. On any reliable and trustworthy metric system, our spending is way off-balance. The future of our country literally relies on all of our current students who are often attending poorly funded schools, and our collective student debt has reached the $1 trillion mark. That is a national security threat.

Imagine if instead of 3% of the FY2015 federal budget going to education, that number was doubled, or tripled. Just look at Chicago where 49 public schools were shut down in 2012. How does one build up a society by literally tearing down the fundamental building blocks of a successful society? An economy built on peace would value teachers, brain surgeons, those who work in factories, on docks, and all of those whose labor is continually keeping our economy going. Instead we continue to reward weapons manufacturers, and imply severe austerity on everyone else.

In Obama’s commencement speech to graduating cadets at West Point on Wednesday May 28th, 2014, he declared that “we have been through a long season of war,” and it definitely shows. However, in order for President Obama’s words to be meaningful, we should see a change in federal spending, priorities, and goals.

An economy that is built on peace is one where millionaires pay higher taxes to help fund the services and institutions that undoubtedly have allowed helped them get to where they are today. A peace economy would ensure that healthcare is a right, not a privilege. A peace economy would regulate guns and treat mass killings as a real threat to our national cohesion, and a symptom of our death urge and our war psyche created in part by our war economy. A peace economy would assure that economic austerity is not a feasible option in a land of plenty. A peace economy would make it a matter of decency that excess profits are shared more equitably and in accordance to our declared values.

This is ultimately what I see as a peace economy: an economy that works for us all, provides for our most basic human needs, and is one that is sustainable, fair, logical, and inclusive. A war economy is anything but. A peace economy is the only acceptable economy and a dream that I share with my fellow Americans.