Economy dominated by military must diversify

by Ricky Shah, PEP Intern
Letter to the Editor 10-6 St. Louis Post Dispatch

Regarding “South Korea’s snub shows F-15’s limitations” (Sept. 25):

St. Louis is one of the more militarily dominated economies in the country, with Boeing receiving military contracts and employing large numbers of employees locally. However, with two wars coming to an end and Boeing losing or completing contracts domestically and abroad, we are going to have to address an inherent future job loss in the region.

According to the Friends Committee on National Legislation, “In 1989, 159,000 people in St. Louis, Missouri (one out of every seven workers) were employed by defense contractors. McDonnell Douglas Corp. (now, Boeing) had 42,000 employees. Just eight years later, with the Cold War ended, only 99,000 workers were employed in St. Louis by defense-related firms.” 

St. Louis should have a plan in place to deal with the impending cuts in defense contracts and the job loss that will follow. St. Louis has responded well to this in the past. FCNL further explains, “The Office of Economic Adjustment provided planning and organizational funding to the St. Louis Defense Adjustment program to support a coordinated and comprehensive regional response to the downsizing. As a result of this planning, by 1994, 75 percent of all workers laid off earlier were re-employed and two-thirds of those workers earned as much or more 
money than they did while working at their previous job, including 10 percent that owned their own businesses.”

St. Louis needs to start the process of diversifying its economy to that of a peacetime economy.