1. Do you agree that a "gunbelt" exists in this country? Are defense regions fundamentally different from manufacturing regions?
I do agree that a so called "gunbelt" exists within the American economy, and, thus, the country. The existence of clusters of firms participating the nation's armaments industries in various locations around the country is a demonstrated fact.
The fact that the armaments industry is not more widely distributed around the country, together with the fact that large concentrations of firms participating in armaments manufacturing are absent from geographic regions with the infrastructure and technological expertise to support operations, is evidence that some controlling factors have worked to determine the locations of armaments manufacturers.
The so called "gunbelt," however, is not similar to the "rust belt," the "sun belt," or the "frost belt," each of which is easily defined by logical geographic criteria. The "gunbelt," by contrast, is a contrived name that does not accurately describe the phenomenon that it is supposed to represent. The "gunbelt" is, however, similar to the other groupings in that specific factors caused significant location decisions to be made with respect to those areas. The "sun belt" achieved growth because the absence, for the most part, of a strong organized labor tradition caused the southern tier states to have weak labor or outright anti union laws and relatively low wage rates. Conversely, the "frost belt" and "rust belt" (more often than not descriptions of the same region) suffered a loss of economic activity because the region did have a strong organized labor tradition and relatively high wage rates. The scattered areas of the "gunbelt" achieved growth because, first, entrepreneurs and military planners sought locations that would provide them with greater freedom of action, and, second, because, once the initial armaments firms became established in...