Richardcyoung.com

The Online Home of Author and Investor, Dick Young

  • Home
  • How We Are Different
  • About Us
    • Foundation Principles
    • Contributors
  • Investing
    • You’ve Read The Last Issue of Intelligence Report, Now What?
  • Your Survival Guy
  • The Great Reset
  • COVID-19
  • My Rifles
  • Dividends and Compounding
  • Your Security
  • The Swiss Way
  • Dick Young
  • Debbie Young
  • Key West
  • Paris
  • Dick’s R&B Top 100
  • Liberty & Freedom Map
  • Bank Credit & Money
  • Your Survival Guy’s Super States
  • NNT & Cholesterol
  • Work to Make Money/Invest to Save Money
  • Your Health
  • Ron Paul
  • US Treasury Yield Curve: My Favorite Investor Tool

Let the Army, Navy and Air Force Compete

February 25, 2015 By Richard C. Young

Niskanen Center’s Matthew Fay writes, “Put the Army, Navy and Air Force in competition with one another for money and missions, and they will happily inform civilian overseers about the wasteful practices of their brethren.”

“Competition spurs innovation. Sapolsky’s (Harvey) MIT colleague Owen Cote has found that military organizations seek new technologies—or new ways of using existing technologies—in competition over missions.”

Fay writes:

Nearly two decades ago, with the joint force Goldwater-Nichols produced still struggling to define its post-Cold War identity, Harvey Sapolsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) saw three advantages inter-service competition provide for defense management. They are even more applicable today.

First, inter-service competition provides information for civilian oversight. At his confirmation hearing, Carter acknowledged that the “taxpayer cannot comprehend” the amount of waste at the Pentagon, and lent his rhetorical support to legislative efforts to audit the Department of Defense. It remains unclear, however, whether the Pentagon will meet its 2017 deadline for audit-readiness or what exactly a one-time audit will accomplish, other than confirm what is already known: the military wastes tremendous amounts of money. Inter-service competition on the other hand provides a mechanism for an immediate and ongoing audit. Put the Army, Navy and Air Force in competition with one another for money and missions, and they will happily inform civilian overseers about the wasteful practices of their brethren.

Second, service competition provides civilians leverage in their oversight role. While Robert McNamara did a great deal to centralize defense management during his tenure at the Pentagon, he wisely left himself leeway to play the services off one another. He cultivated allies in the Navy and Army while cancelling two Air Force bombers and capping the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles the service could possess. At the post-Goldwater-Nichols Pentagon, such cancellations are uncommon as the services present a “joint” front to protect favored programs. A problematic program like the F-35 continues with no fear for its existence seeing as the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps all have skin in the game.

Third, competition spurs innovation. Sapolsky’s MIT colleague Owen Cote has found that military organizations seek new technologies—or new ways of using existing technologies—in competition over missions. Military services are famously conservative institutions, but they will discard preferred weapons and doctrines rather than become irrelevant. The Department of Defense is currently investing in an innovation initiative, with $12 billion dedicated to the effort in its current budget request. But money alone is no incentive to innovate. It takes considerable risk to change the status quo. In psychology, prospect theory says that people risk more to prevent losses than they do to achieve gains. Thus, profligate spending and bureaucratic comity only perpetuate current service preferences. Service competition instead works in concert with Budget Control Act spending limits to provide powerful incentives to innovate.

If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for my free weekly email.

Related Posts

  • Air Force Chief Scientist Confirms F-35 Will Include Artificial Intelligence
  • Air Force Chief Scientist Confirms F-35 Will Include Artificial Intelligence
  • U.S. Air Force Testing Dangerous Gravity Bomb
  • Author
  • Recent Posts
Richard C. Young
Richard C. Young is the editor of Young's World Money Forecast, and a contributing editor to both Richardcyoung.com and Youngresearch.com.
Latest posts by Richard C. Young (see all)
  • Get Well Soon Taki - March 21, 2023
  • A Cashless Society Is A Debacle for Americans - March 21, 2023
  • How about Hiring Erik Prince to Crush the Drug Cartels? - March 21, 2023

Dick Young’s Must Reads

  • Gold/Silver Coins No Longer Allowed in Safe Deposit Boxes
  • DIGITAL ID: You Are More than a Soulless Digital Identity
  • Key West’s Best Burger
  • Americans Fleeing High Tax States for Growth Corridors
  • What Do You Know About Rho-Kinase?
  • The Clock is Ticking: You Must Protect Your Family
  • Government Should Be Small, Laws Unobtrusive, and Men Left Alone
  • Boom—Your Life Changes
  • How Can You Maximize Natural Immunity to Viruses?
  • “The Goal”: Strong Families, Resilient Faith, Thriving Middle Class.

Disclosure

RSS Youngresearch.com

  • Your Survival Guy’s BEST Insider’s Guide to Key West
  • For Whom Is Your Portfolio Serving?
  • Who’s to Blame for Banking Vulnerability?
  • Mortgage Market Not Expected to Settle Down Soon
  • Are You Living Your Best Life?
  • Were Silicon Valley Bank’s Motivations for Taking Losses Pure?
  • Will the Black Swan Usher in Digital Dollars?
  • Major Rail Merger Gets Approval
  • The Education of Barney Frank
  • Credit Suisse Announced “Material Weaknesses” In Its Internal Controls

RSS Yoursurvivalguy.com

  • Are You Fairly Wealthy? I’m Listening
  • How Long Is Your Water Supply Chain?
  • Your Survival Guy’s BEST Insider’s Guide to Key West
  • Be Wary of Those Who Wrap Themselves in Capes
  • For Whom Is Your Portfolio Serving?
  • ESG: Are Markets Ready for “A Needed Dose of Reality?”
  • Was Silicon Valley Bank a Victim of ESG?
  • Are You Living Your Best Life?
  • March RAGE Gauge: Will the Black Swan Usher in Digital Dollars?
  • Gretchen Whitmer Reviving Forced Unionization in Michigan

Who’d be Nuts Enough to Have Put Money into SVB?

Are You Fairly Wealthy? I’m Listening

Get Well Soon Taki

A Cashless Society Is A Debacle for Americans

How about Hiring Erik Prince to Crush the Drug Cartels?

Key West’s Best Burger

Copyright © 2023 | Terms & Conditions | About Us | Dick Young | Archives