For example, every office building in NYC now has one or more guards, a CCTV system and who knows what else to monitor those going in and out.
When I worked in Manhattan you walked into the building, looked up your party on the wall listing and took the elevator. Nothing untoward happened.
Then there are all the concrete bunkers placed in front of building to prevent enemy tanks (I guess) from crashing through the front door - how much do they cost?
How about the armed soldiers in the train stations and the cops doing random bag checks of law abiding citizens taking the subway. Who is paying their salaries? (Oh, I forgot, we are.)
Shall I go on: Homeland Security, 15 spy agencies (that we know of), Total Information Awareness, the "green zone" at how many billions.
Police states are inefficient as you indicate, but not just because of the useless labor being expended (exactly what do hedge fund managers contribute to productivity), but because a cowed populace is unproductive and lacks entrepreneurial spirit.
Frightened leaders make for a frightened populace and there are none more scared than those who have been demolishing the US constitution. Policies not Politics ---- Daily Landscape
Uh, China.
The USSR wasn't helped by a complete lack of competitive industries outside of its military hardware, leading to an over-reliance on commodity exports and their (then) tendency to fluctuate wildly in value.
Redstar recently claimed that the US also lacks competitive industries outside of the military, although he's at least half wrong (it along with the vampiric financial sector does create a massive talent drain from the point of view of productive industries).
you are the media you consume.
