Molly WhiteIt’s finally time to release my newest project: https://www.followthecrypto.org/
This website provides a real-time lens into the cryptocurrency industry’s efforts to influence 2024 elections in the United States.
I have been working on this for the past two months, after growing increasingly concerned about the influence this industry is trying to exert. Did you know crypto companies have spent more this cycle than the oil or pharmaceutical industries, despite being a small fraction of the size?
Ted Mielczarek@molly0xfff I was shocked at first by how low the defense sector spending is but I guess they've already got full regulatory capture and a near-$1T budget that never goes down no matter which party controls any branch of government so what are they even spending money lobbying for?
BlindMansBinary@tedmielczarek @molly0xfff Defense has regulatory capture the other way around -- it's practically a state-run industry by now, although Congress is trying to undo what they've done it's going to take years.
As for the budget, it's the lowest as a proportion of economic activity since before WW2, despite the growing threats to the country. We're sleepwalking into a catastrophe that will end up way more pricey than had we chose to do it right and deter war in the first place.
@BlindMansBinary @molly0xfff we still spend more than the next 5 countries combined so I don't think "spend more" is a reasonable answer.
@tedmielczarek @molly0xfff There are definitely structural reforms that need to happen (which is why Congress is trying to undo the things that have turned defense into a semi-state industry), but there's also only so much you can expect when the average highly-skilled American worker makes so much more than their peers in countries 2-5. The U.S. has to outspend its own non-defense private sector to be able to produce defense goods.