Other ways to spend money

The half-page article on Jan. 7 about the noise of the F-35 has one sentence about the $130 million cost of one plane. Total cost of the planned basing of 18 to 24 aircraft in Burlington would cost the taxpayers in this country over $3 billion. I wonder what that could buy instead of the F-35?

It could buy a four-year college education for 31,200 students. Or it could buy new roads, bridges, develop sustainable energy, pay off our national debt. According to federal reports, that amount of money could create more jobs than spending it on the most expensive military procurement ever.

Adm. Jonathan Greenert, U.S. chief of naval operations, has questioned the value of the aircraft, saying that military procurement is too focused on building ever-costlier aircraft of complex design and “much of this may be irrelevant to the Navy’s typical missions in the past 20 years.”

It’s also interesting to know that Lockheed Martin, contractor for the F-35, spent over $11 million lobbying in 2012 and paid its CEO Robert Stevens $20 million in compensation.

Esther Farnsworth

Montpelier