How Drug War Dinosaurs & Traffic Jams Kill Our Economy II

Topher Morrison

PurpleSerf.com

Read PART I of this series here.

PART II

Image Source: Documentary Film: American Drug War

The Drug War Dinosaur

            The argument that the Drug War is a colossal failure was won long ago albeit Washington and many of our local politicians have paid little notice.  To them it is a handy campaign slogan “Keeping Our Kids Safe” and “Our Streets Clean” but the levels of drug use in America has grown relatively unabated since 1960. 

The War on Drugs is a waste of national and local resources, it has created the largest most unproductive and corruptive black market the world has ever known, militarized our local police, slowly eroded respect for civil liberties, and has led to incalculable innocent deaths.

            From the coca farmer in Colombia to the Drug Czar in Washington D.C. this has to be one of the biggest examples of market distortion available.   There are nearly 11,000 DEA agents, 4500 ATF agents and almost 650,000 police and sheriff patrol officers obliged to enforce national drug laws to the tune of $15 billion annually. 

Likewise inner city gang members and suburban drug peddlers instead of creating value, merely loiter, cause trouble and distribute in their local communities. Similar to the relationship between a jailer and inmate, both of these groups do nothing for the economy.

            Because of the illicit drug market and its false scarcity the black market has invaded the inner cities and provided those willing to take a little risk the opportunity to make money merely by providing a substance that would otherwise be available at your local drug store or smoke shop.  It is often a part time job, but many times is a full time occupation and with it comes violent gangs because it is not protected as legitimate property by authorities.  Simple economics.

            If we legalized the current spectrum of illicit drugs as they many of them were prior to 1930 while drug abuse would still remain a public health concern, the international black market, wholly dependent on American drug consumption, would grind to a halt as responsibilities for production, distribution and regulation would be absorbed by local and national pharmacies.  The boogey man would simply disappear and much like cigarette and alcohol addiction our local substance abuse infrastructure would step in as it does now.

The Military Industrial Entitlement Program

If you have yet to read my article on why I feel the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is in fact one of our largest entitlement programs I’d suggest you do, but I’ll give you brief outline.  In 2012 it has become a $1.2 trillion program the largest of its kind in the world.

Similar to welfare, which breeds dependency and prevents many recipients from reentering the workforce our MIC prevents countries from seeking their own defense.  South Korea, Germany and Japan really have no reason to build up their own military apparatus even though they are wealthy and peaceful because we already do it for them and have for over 50 years.  We also currently offer our military training services and foreign aid to 75 smaller countries throughout the world.  Our MIC is their entitlement.  This is a massive distortion which enables our competitors to better compete against us.

The profligate spending we condone also subsidizes the industries here at home that would otherwise be producing innovations of peace rather than warfare and competing rather than waiting for a generous government contract.  When our government directs funds to Homeland Security and the Pentagon or to build a massive Cyber Security Center in Utah these are limited resources that could have been used to deepen our economy.

Nation of Bureaucrats and Managers not Creators

When you step back and take in the full breadth of our economy it’s easy to understand much of it isn’t accomplishing anything.  The sectors we have just covered are what we call living breathing distortions in the marketplace.  Imagine what these people could be creating or servicing if they weren’t telling us what to do, causing violence, creating boogey men or sitting in traffic?  Granted tax accountants hold our hand through the labyrinth that is the US tax code, but if it was simple we wouldn’t need this legion of tax coyotes.

Think about the reported unemployment rate, add the real unemployment rate, which includes underemployment (a growing problem created by diploma mills) and those who have given up looking for a job after 90 days.  Introduce everything we’ve just talked about and one begins to catch a glimpse of our anemic condition.  Most of our country isn’t creating or innovating anything, by virtue of their unemployment or the distortions created by government