Defense Jobs
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The Times describes politicians using jobs to justify their scramble to appease defense contractors (“Congress Feels Pressure to Save Defense Jobs,” Part A, March 2). However, the coverage fails to point out the lack of logic behind these seemingly pork-barrel ploys. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and others shows that defense projects are less labor intensive than other investments. For example, $1 billion spent to create 28,000 defense jobs could instead generate 32,000 transportation jobs, 57,000 consumer jobs or 71,000 education jobs.
Politicians should scramble instead to support retraining programs and economic conversion projects such as the ones currently before Congress.
H.R. 101, the Defense Economic Adjustment Act, addresses the needs of companies during economic conversion, and H.R. 2852, the Economic Diversification and Defense Adjustment Act, has complementary aims to assist communities with their plans for a more productive future.
DAVID BRAUN
Goleta
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