Gunbelt within American Economy

I do agree that a socalled "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 socalled "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 antiunion laws and relatively low wage rates. Conversely, the "frost

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This approach simplified their argument, and made it easier to justify. The approach, however, did not strengthen their argument in theory. The authors also appear to have overlooked the impact of political coincidence on the location of the armaments industry during the "Cold War" period. The South, as a region, had a long tradition of returning incumbent U.S. senators and representatives to Congress. These Southern members of Congress, thus, gained the seniority to be able to dominate committee chairmanships. Thus, when the military planners and armaments industrialists desired a new weapons program, one of the best ways to assure a favorable outcome was to promise to locate the plants in the home areas of these committee chairmen. In the same vein, the Democrats, for the most part, controlled both houses of Congress in the 1950s and 1960s. Ambitious and energetic senators and representatives from the "sun belt," Northwestern states, and Massachusetts, such as Lyndon Johnson were assuming leadership positions in both houses of Congress. At the same time, the Midwest, the traditional home of American manufacturing, was sending Republican senators such as Everett Dirksen to the Congress to serve as spokesmen for the minor
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Some common words found in the essay are:
, Cold War, Dirksen Congress, Southern Congress, defense plant, Congress Midwest, american economy, Lyndon Johnson, plant closures, armaments spending, cold war, defense contracts, senators representatives, socalled gunbelt, armaments industry, defense plant closures, closure defense plant, loss defense contracts, defense contract, cold war period, driving force closure,
Approximate Word count = 1578
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)