Would you be comfortable working at a defense contractor?

[fujiyama]

I'll be graduating next semester in engineering and what's unfortunate is many of the jobs out there are in that area.

It would make me uncomfortable to think I'd be working on missile systems or profitting off these psychotic policies...but I have to admit, I''d pretty much take any job I could get...

If you were desperate for a job would you do it?

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

1. Sure.

That business needs honest progressive people with ethics

[fujiyama]

2. That's an interesting way of looking at it..

[bliss_eternal]

5. I agree- it is an interesting way of looking at it.

Very cool of you to have such an open mind.

Honestly, I couldn't do it. Doesn't mean you can't though--just speaking for myself.

[DerekG]

18. "The business needs honest progressive people?"

What, it's better if the guy who builds the cluster bomb believes in gay marriage? It's still a bloody cluster bomb.

[alittlelark]

3. My dad did it for a few years...

he is disgusted by them now. We all need to lock our cars to prevent them from entering.........

[fujiyama]

6. Yeah my dad has one contract with it

and he was saying he would have preferred not doing it...but when ya need the money...

[alittlelark]

8. Did your dad NEED the $? Mine didn't either.

They played into the 'old book' of rules.


Very sad.

[fujiyama]

10. In my dad's case

yeah, I'd say so. His was more of a homeland security related thing...It wasn't in weapons systems...

[Tom Kitten]

4. Yes

Continue to learn about things... ;) Know your enemy!

[neweurope]

7. NO, never. "Defense" means WAR and in the case of the USA

"attacking poor helpless countries". Just like your Ministry of Defense (as mine) should be called "Ministry of War". Everybody who supports the war machine (even if only by buying telephone cards for soldiers) is guilty in my eyes.

---------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[Shipwack]

12. That's a tad extreme, no?

"(even if only by buying telephone cards for soldiers)"

I suppose then that you don't pay taxes, or buy merchanddise from those who do, since that directly supports the war machine...

The soldiers are victims too, in this, being wasted in a worthless cause.

Of course, that's a broad statement, and while there are those who don't deserve our sympathy, most are just trying to muddle through this mess.

[neweurope]

16. You are right, of course, but so am I.

It is true that one really had to not pay taxes because my taxes support wars, too. But while that would land me in jail the person who decides not to become a soldier runs no such risk. Not becoming a soldier is the least one can do, I'd think.

And, yes, in a way I think soldiers are victims, too, at least in a society where becoming a soldier is the only way for a lot of people to find a job or get a college education. Still in my eyes supporting a soldier is to help the war. Maybe it's because I'm German - but I cannot, no matter how often I read it, understand how somebody can say "support the troops but not the war". These are not two different things; without these troops the war couldn't be fought.


---------------------

Remember Fallujah

Bush to The Hague!

[bridgit]

9. if it was good enough for leonardo...

http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/invenzioni.html

[hfojvt]

11. hold out for something better

My first job out of college was with DoD. I worked there a year before I quit. I sorta felt the way Will Hunting did in the movie where he talks about working for NSA. However, jumping off the good job train in 1986 has cost me alot financially. I shoulda found another job before I jumped, because once you are off the good job train, it can be hard to get back on.

[Shipwack]

13. Even if I -wasn't- desperate I would.

As someone astutely said earlier, someone with morals needs to watch the henhouse...

On a more practical note, I work with defense contractors all the time, and it's not a bad gig. Plus, once you get your foot in the door, you can always transfer to a different part of the company. Boeing and Lockheed make things other than weapon systems.

If working for a "tainted company" really bothers you, you are truly out of luck. I'm willing to bet that most large technology companies (or even just plain 'companies')have at least one defense contract of some sort.

Finally, you can always take the same approach that the band Chumba Wamba takes... When General Motors wanted to use one of their songs (Pass it Along) for a commercial, they agreed. They then took the money and gave it to anti-corporation activist groups. So take the 'dirty money'. Build up your resume, and tithe to a good cause.

[bicentennial_baby]

14. I'd never, ever, ever do it

I just can't cross certain moral lines, and that's one of 'em...just being 'murikan and living and consuming there does enough to feed the machine...i don't wanna go so far as to promote it wholesale by giving it my daily energy and strength, and then profit from it. unh-uh, no way.

[izzie]

15. I am the wrong person to ask. I live off a military pension

plus lived in the middle of the service for years and members of family do work for plants that make arms. I do think war are just wasteful but------------

[cleofus1]

17. just get the highest paying job you can

and then support your local democratic party candidates...

or send me the money...

[DerekG]

19. I'm sure Eichmann made a killing at his job

n/t

[cleofus1]

20. now now

i didn't say he should work for the war machine or the industrial military simplicity...i just said get the best paying job you can...preferably something you can't be put in jail or executed for...