{"id":1698,"date":"2021-01-29T19:24:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T19:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/?page_id=1698"},"modified":"2021-03-27T15:40:38","modified_gmt":"2021-03-27T15:40:38","slug":"opportunity-costs","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/opportunity-costs\/","title":{"rendered":"Opportunity Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-f36f6b64\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-wrapper gb-grid-wrapper-40ddae71\">\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-d6759aaf\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-d6759aaf\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\">\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Economists and others use the term <strong>opportunity costs<\/strong> to denote alternative uses of a certain asset or fund. In other words, the benefit that <em>could<\/em> have been enjoyed if the alternative had been chosen, or the loss suffered because it was not chosen. Politics is often about rival uses of limited public money, so it is entirely natural that there should be challenges to the high priority given by so many governments to military spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Coronavirus: How the Arms Trade is Making You Sick | Andrew Feinstein\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zhe7JZ0K0xo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A rational assessment of the threats to a particular country and its population would identify challenges, consider their gravity and probability, and propose measures to guard against, or better still, prevent them. However it is no secret that other considerations usually enter into the decision mix: political ideology, driving forces like nationalism and populism, as well as the lobbying power of vested interests and outright corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The perspective of GCOMS<\/strong> is that military budgets represent a massive distortion of the use of our society\u2019s precious resources and talents. Instead, a real-security, or sustainable-security, approach should be taken. See Real Security section of the website. Such a holistic approach requires a very different set of values guiding public spending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2017-18 <strong>the International Peace Bureau<\/strong> called these the \u2018five directions\u2019 in which military resources could be rechannelled through the following broad fields of action:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"gb-container gb-container-9ebbe6fa\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\">\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-abe2eced gb-headline-text\">Five Directions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"has-white-color has-text-color has-medium-font-size wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Peace, disarmament, conflict prevention and resolution, human security;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Sustainable development and anti-poverty programmes;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Climate change and biodiversity loss \u2013 for mitigation and adaptation;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Social programmes, human rights, gender equality and green job-creation;<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Humanitarian efforts to assist refugees, migrants and other vulnerable populations.<\/strong><\/li><\/ol>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the course of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020-21, the importance of healthcare has risen in public awareness, along with calls for support for front-line workers and other key sectors such as education, employment, transport and housing. The economic crisis generated by the pandemic has revealed huge areas of economic, social and cultural life that are suffering losses of income which threaten their continued existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, since <strong>the range of possible spending areas is very wide<\/strong>, procedures are needed to ensure that the decisions taken by governments are democratic. Since GCOMS activists generally support all the alternative measures outlined above, our main focus is on reducing the commitment to militarism rather than pushing specific programmes. Given that both major UK parties are now heavily committed to support for the UK\u2019s armed forces (and to its very expensive nuclear weapons) \u2013 despite <a href=\"https:\/\/cnduk.org\/77-of-uk-public-back-global-nuclear-weapons-ban\/\">much polling evidence (on the latter point) that the public does not agree<\/a> \u2013 we are faced with choices over where to act in order to ensure popular input to what are far-from- transparent deliberations. Thus we can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1. <strong>influence the positions of political parties<\/strong> in advance of electoral contests, possibly in coalition with others. Write to MPs. Propose resolutions for party conferences. Articles in party publications&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">2. <strong>lobby governments <\/strong>directly on behalf of one sector or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">3. push for <strong>major public consultations<\/strong> on where the government\u2019s emphasis should lie. While such a consultation can take many forms, it could draw inspiration from the widespread phenomena of <strong>People\u2019s Budgets<\/strong>, and <strong>Citizens\u2019 Assemblies<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-6a0b3cd1 gb-headline-text\"><strong>People\u2019s Budgets examples<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/peoplesbudget.org\/\">https:\/\/peoplesbudget.org\/<\/a> (national, from USA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/peoplesbudgetla.com\/\">https:\/\/peoplesbudgetla.com\/<\/a> (local, from USA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/participedia.net\/case\/5524\">https:\/\/participedia.net\/case\/5524<\/a> (local, from Brazil)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now in 1500 cities worldwide: <a href=\"https:\/\/delibdemjournal.org\/article\/id\/414\/\">https:\/\/delibdemjournal.org\/article\/id\/414\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such as: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk\/your-community\/organisation-support\/peoples-budget\/\">https:\/\/www.frometowncouncil.gov.uk\/your-community\/organisation-support\/peoples-budget\/<\/a> (from UK)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"gb-headline gb-headline-20908649 gb-headline-text\"><strong>Citizens Assemblies:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Citizens%27_assembly\">What is a Citizen&#8217;s Assembly?<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/extinctionrebellion.uk\/go-beyond-politics\/citizens-assembly\/\">Extinction Rebellion Proposal for Citizen&#8217;s assemblies<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.climateassembly.uk\/about\/index.html\">Climate Assembly UK<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"gb-grid-column gb-grid-column-982c0ed0\"><div class=\"gb-container gb-container-982c0ed0\"><div class=\"gb-inside-container\"><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1698","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1698"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2316,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1698\/revisions\/2316"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demilitarize.org.uk\/staging\/1381\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}