What did eisenhower mean by the military industrial complex. I kinda understand but can I have an easier more direct explanation. Thank you
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Weapons companies get contracts from the government to produce weapons. The government needs more weapons when they are at war, so sometimes these weapons companies will try to influence (lobbying, bribes, a position at the company after the official retires, etc) the government to go to war or support one, so they can sell more weapons.
It’s the various corporations that build and maintain equipment for the military. Think Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, etc.
Not all of them are exclusively military suppliers either. Texas Instruments, for example, is known for their calculators, but they also make guidance systems for missiles.
Maintaining a fully equipped military is very expensive, and something that most countries in fact struggle with. It’s hard to justify these expenses just for defensive purposes and what if scenarios, but when a military is actively engaged in an ongoing conflict, a lot of money is poured into the equipment and weapon systems. This means that in order to have a thriving war economy, you constantly need to have wars going on somewhere.
The military industrial complex is a collection of arms manufacturers that basically lobby the government to buy more weapons, and to do that the government has to justify these purchases, meaning they need to convince the public that they are necessary, which is usually accomplished by convincing the public they are under threat and the only way to stop it is through war, somewhere. So it’s a feedback loop of an always running war machine that always requires more and more weapons.
Weapons aren’t designed or built by the military itself. They’re made by private (or publicly traded) for profit companies. This is the military industrial complex. All the companies and infrastructure around the design and manufacture of these weapons.
The concern is about the influence these companies have over government decision making and their motivations. To put it bluntly, war death and destruction is good for these companies and for profit companies have to much influence on government decision making.
Has it always been private companies making weapons for the military?
Are all countries this way ?
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