Future MDA, NASA, and military job loss (Huntsville, Eva: bills, vacation)

[OmarLittle]

Originally Posted by HB2HSV

+1

If you want to think of "high tech welfare", think of the National Science Foundation who continue to issue grants to university research so professors can keep pumping out Ph.Ds.

That kind of statement reflects an embarrassing level of science illiteracy for someone who works in the aerospace industry. NSF (and NIH) spend about 80% of their budgets directly on research. Even the education portion of the budgets from the NSF and NIH (which are used to support graduate training) emphasize science, math, and engineering education at all levels.

Budgets for the NSF, NIH, and NASA are ~ 1%, 4%, and 3% of the DoD budget. I'm all for entitlement reform, but NSF is about as far from an entitlement as an FTG-05 engineer is from a WalMart checker.

[macwell]

DoD sees four sequestration scenarios | Federal Times | federaltimes.com


Administration spells out doom of sequestration cuts | Federal Times | federaltimes.com


Senate blocks GOP move to make contractors send layoff notices ahead of defense cuts | Fox News


http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/macdill/defense-contractor-saic-lays-off-200-in-tampa/1243804


Lockheed execs issue letter to employees about sequestration - Orlando Business Journal

[Wandering_Missourian]

So let's just assume sequestration actually happens come January 2013. How many jobs in Huntsville are defense jobs (many of them high-paying)? I would guess maybe 60%? Now how many of those 60% will be laid off by the end of 2013? 10%? 20%? 30%? I have seen all sorts of doom flying around but haven't seen any realistic estimates for the Huntsville metro.

If the hammer really fell..... I would guess HSV could see 10-14%+ unemployment (from 7.7% now) and a drop of 20%+ from home values in the next few years (40%+ drop for your high-end $400K+ housing that will no longer have a market).

I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't work in defense and support shrinking the pork in the defense budget. A blow to Huntsville now would be great for its future..... smart engineers could work on renewable energy or awesome new commercial high-tech stuff instead of figuring out how best to blow stuff up. But in the short-term I understand it will affect EVERYONE in the area.

[macwell]

Defense Bubble Burst?

--Flashback--
DotCom bubble crash of 2000, thousands of jobs lost, people moved out of RTP, Silcon Valley, Austin, housing tanked. During the bubble cities/companies spent spent, grew, built, grew, then the crash


Defense bubble burst coming to Huntsville? city/companies spend, grow, builds. Next bubble burst, jobs lost, people move, housing tanks, and next crash

Dot-com bubble - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[walkies]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Missourian

smart engineers could work on renewable energy or awesome new commercial high-tech stuff instead of figuring out how best to blow stuff up.

ridiculous... so all that defense companies here in HSV do is to work "out how best to blow things up"? Perhaps you would be okay without some of the things that help make modern life comfortable: military/nasa have developed: the radio, digital photography, internet, gps, modern prosthetics/medical inventions.

When we have to go to war people get upset when innocent civilians die and one of the great things about modern warfare is that we are learning "how best to blow things up". We are getting less collateral damage. When our soldiers go out into the field they rely upon technical gains to keep them ahead of the enemy and out of harms way. A great example of technology coming out of RSA that is doing just that is UAV's, some blow stuff up, some do not... Having soldier friends and family, I am not fine accepting that we cannot reduce their risk by well targeted military spending.

I say the Army is damned if they do, damned if they don't. I am not denying that there is pork to remove, that is what I mean by targeted military spending. However strong national defense is essential when you consider the defense spending of other large nations such as China. Other allied nations, e.g. Britain, keep slashing their defense spending to finance social programs. They are now not in a position to mount a significant defense of their country and instead rely on the United States. Who would the United states rely on if we reduce our military might? We would have to rely on the moral culture of the Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans etc to not mount attacks on us. Are you willing to take that risk? I am not, and hope to see a change in Administration. We need welfare reform and minor defense spending reform. Defense creates jobs, Welfare keeps many able people from finding jobs.

[Khsoj]

Lately it hasn't been the Russians, Chinese, etc attacking the US. On the contrary, it has been the US invading other countries.

[GreggT]

Originally Posted by walkies

I
say the Army is damned if they do, damned if they don't. I am not denying that there is pork to remove, that is what I mean by targeted military spending. However strong national defense is essential when you consider the defense spending of other large nations such as China.

We need to really be concerned about this.........now we are ONLY spending 5 times as much as China

Other allied nations, e.g. Britain, keep slashing their defense spending to finance social programs. They are now not in a position to mount a significant defense of their country and instead rely on the United States. Who would the United states rely on if we reduce our military might? We would have to rely on the moral culture of the Chinese, the Russians, the North Koreans etc to not mount attacks on us. Are you willing to take that risk? I am not,

Give me a break! Russia has their own internal issues, their spending is 1/10th of ours, China, we would be the last country they would consider going to war with. Their economy would fold up. North Korea, .........what can I say, just shows the intelligence of your post.

We need welfare reform and minor defense spending reform. Defense creates jobs, Welfare keeps many able people from finding jobs.

Defense spending reform IS a form of welfare reform, both forms of welfare accomplish the same goals putting money back into the system and both are equally in need of change considering we are currently borrowing $.40 of each dollar we spend. Military toys are neat when you can afford them, in our current economic situation we cannot.

[JakeWilliams]

Originally Posted by Wandering_Missourian

So let's just assume sequestration actually happens come January 2013. How many jobs in Huntsville are defense jobs (many of them high-paying)? I would guess maybe 60%? Now how many of those 60% will be laid off by the end of 2013? 10%? 20%? 30%? I have seen all sorts of doom flying around but haven't seen any realistic estimates for the Huntsville metro.

If the hammer really fell..... I would guess HSV could see 10-14%+ unemployment (from 7.7% now) and a drop of 20%+ from home values in the next few years (40%+ drop for your high-end $400K+ housing that will no longer have a market).

I don't have a dog in this fight. I don't work in defense and support shrinking the pork in the defense budget. A blow to Huntsville now would be great for its future..... smart engineers could work on renewable energy or awesome new commercial high-tech stuff instead of figuring out how best to blow stuff up. But in the short-term I understand it will affect EVERYONE in the area.

No way to know how many jobs would be affected until the DoD decides where it will cut. The effects will be long reaching though, and have already been felt. It's not making the news, but there are already companies cutting jobs because of the fear of what will happen, trying to get ready by cutting jobs now, so there are less to cut later. Don't forget if there even the low end of 10% of the DoD jobs cut in HSV, that will have a ripple affect on other jobs as well.

Who would be hiring those smart engineers? Our economy is not booming, and if we go through with sequestration it will push this country into another recession or worse. The way to fix the budget is through calculated long term thinking, not a sudden chop of the budget. Of course that will never happen, it would require politicians to work together for what's best for the country instead of themselves.

[ingsoc75]

It looks like I'm going to be looking for a new job next month.

[HuntsvilleJT]

Originally Posted by ingsoc75

It looks like I'm going to be looking for a new job next month.

What company do you work for?