Military Keynesianism

In the wake World War Two and in the early days of the Cold War the US Military was a much larger proportion of the population than it is today. The US military employed millions of Americans. There were more military bases than there were today. The GI's who worked on these bases worked alongside civilian contractors. All of them spent their paychecks off base injecting money into the local economy. This military version of Keynesianism kept the US economy afloat for many years following the end of World War 2. It was a military that depended more on manpower than it did technology. Military Keynesianism made wealth redistribution palatable for the American plutocracy.  

But as the Cold War dragged on corporate greed took over. The arms makers took more and more of the dollars away from the GI. The US military began to depend more and more on technology than manpower. The US began to close down military bases. This ended up depressing the local economies that depended on GI dollars. Military Keynesianism in the wake of WW2 gave the US the most prosperous economy the world has ever seen. It definitely is not the best way to do Keynesianism. But it was the only way to do it in America given the political situation.