One of the most important aspects to Navy contracts, and one very rarely touched on by our vigilant media, is the state of American shipbuilding. Shipyards are in pretty dire straits nowadays. Fewer ships being built means a lot fewer jobs building them.
Why should we care? Well, shipyards are located in pretty economically depressed areas, and these are well-paying jobs. The trickle-down effects are enormous. More jobs at the shipyard means more jobs in retail, in service industries, and more. The shipyards in southern Mississippi and northern Florida, for example, are hiring thousands of people in the next few years. And these jobs pay middle-class wages. Suddenly one of the most moribund economies in America is revving like a race car. More local tax revenue, just to show one result, means more money for schools, more money for hospitals, more money for local infrastructure. Of course, Dems want these contracts torn up. Because the military is icky and Mississippi and north Florida vote red, so fuck them. I guess they'd rather have coastal Mississippi's economy built on gambling and Pensacola's economy built on absolutely nothing rather than let those hicks actually improve their lives a little bit. Actual jobs for the working class? Fuck that noise.
I do not want to go too deep into shipyard & labor logistics, but...
There are a few reason fewer ships are being built, both Militarily and Civilian. One of the principle ones is "Ships aren't pieces of shit today" or more specifically "quality control and material sciences mean that ships are built to run better, longer". The other is that the "containerization" of shipping that started in the 60s/70s means that we are shipping more tonage with drastically fewer ships; combined with better design and engineering, we are shipping it faster, meaning you need even fewer ships as a route that used to require multiple ships can provide the same service schedule with fewer boats. We are building fewer ships because we need to build fewer ships.
(Edit: and militarily, we aren't in a frenzied arms race with the soviets anymore: China doesn't trust its own shipyards - instead buying & refitting soviet hulls from the 80s - and the less said about India'a carrier the better )
This COULD be a good thing, except...
Things are running into what I refer to as the "Rolexization" of the industry. More specifically: There is an industry that is shrinking. The problem is that as the labor pool shrinks, the the most skilled & experienced workers force out mid-level guys, and there are no jobs for entry level employees as those are taken by displaced mid-levels. There is still an industry, just significanly smaller than it was, and there is no "feed" of replacement talent because its all taken over by senior levels.
This is great for employers as they get to pick and choose senior talent competing for a small number of positions. The problems don't really start until the old timers start to retire and die off, and there is no one to replace them, because there were no entry level guys to promote to mid level, so they could become senior.
(I call it the Rolexization because when watches became disposable with the shift to cheaper electronics in the 70s/80s, this happened to the watch repair industry. Everything was fine until the early 2000s when guys who made it through the contraction began to retire and die - retailers wanted to hire watch repair guys, but there weren't any.
Rolex identified the problem and worked to correct this problem by opening a "Watchsmithing" school. Deliberately sized & spaced classes of College-aged applicants are given free schooling & a small stripend to learn how to build and service Rolex watches, and they hooks applicants up with jobs when they graduate, so they can ensure there is a healthy mix of skill & career progression)
There is also an environmental lobby in the states that make industry in America very hard to deal with. And shipyards are usually unionized.
To give you another parable, in the 60s-90s, the Mob ran the New York construction industry and shook down all the contractors in the city a flat 2% tax on all projects. The Mob, in turn, ensured the union wouldn't fuck with you if you paid your protection money. When the FBI started to build a case in the 80s, they tried to recruit these contractors as informants. Most of them refused: not out of fear of the mob, but because they preferred the system & paying a flat rate to the mob over dealing with the unions.
In this why there is the push to move industry to 3rd world countries. Environmental groups are useful idiots being used to move production to places where if they employees try to unionize, they can simply be shot or jailed.
edit This is why as you said the Democrats, who pretend to rail against corporations while being funded by them, want to legislate this industry out of profitiability in the states so it can go over seas where more money can be made by exploiting the workers.
Neither the politicians nor the corporations are thinking of long term strategic interest, only the short-term buck. The fact it hurts the Red Team is only a coincidental benefit.
(This is why immigration policy in the USA is fucked up - no one with money wants it fixed. Corporations WANT employees they can abuse & underpay because they are scared to talk to the authorities. They want employees paid in cash so there's no payroll/SS taxes to deal with. They want $15/hr minimum wage so they can hire illegals for $5/hr, force their competition to pay more than triple in labor, and if they try the same trick (hiring illegal labor) they can call ICE on the competition. )
Ah, Fuck it, went too deep.
tl;dr Anyone who supports the Paris Climate Accords is a retard, becaus Brazil, China & India are exempt from its emissions controls.
