[hajile]

The army says it has enough tanks, but the US government still approves several hundred per year. They go straight to the scrap bin to be used as parts.

It's not just about welfare though.

If they shut the plants down and something happens, what do they do? The assembly lines will have been shut down or retrofitted for something else and the experienced workers may well have gone to work elsewhere.

They already have to keep the plant available for readiness and the workers need experience building actual tanks, so they keep pumping them out.

[bradleyjg]

> If they shut the plants down and something happens, what do they do?

Use the tanks we already have?

[hajile]

Why keep IT around if everything is working right now? Because by the time you need them again, it will take months to get a new crew up to speed and catch up. In the meantime, the business will suffer.

If actual combat kicks up, then tanks start getting destroyed or break down very quickly. If it takes a year to restart production, it's a very real possibility to not have enough before they start leaving the factory again.

Did you know that the Chinese state-run media is now hyping up nukes in preparation for a potential US war over COVID? [0] If they are actually working on increasing their nuke stockpile, they are definitely also working on increasing total military readiness.

If the US and China got into a conventional war, how long do you think the current tank stockpile would last? The US isn't going to take that chance and the very fact that they have a constant stream of available tanks is one more reason for China to avoid war.

On the whole, I'd rather pay a few dollars to help deter war rather than spend a bunch of lives fighting that war and in case the deterrent fails, at least we are ready.

[0] https://www.newsweek.com/china-state-media-says-country-must...

[bradleyjg]

I have this tiger repelling rock and it’s doing great. I haven’t been attacked by a tiger my whole life.