ABSTRACT
The big losers in the post-Cold War military-industrial complex have been defense workers. Between 1990 and mid-1995, some 800,000 defense-industry jobs vanished. Their joblessness in the early 1990s lasted approximately as long as that of many other manufacturing workers hit by mass layoffs. And within defense-industry ranks, it was African-American and female workers who were most likely to exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits. While defense jobs were evaporating, shareholders in companies with the big contracts enjoyed the rewards of the stock market. Average stock price increases for the twenty top contractors. In California, a unique nonprofit consortium, founded in 1992, is attempting simultaneously to combat the state's high unemployment and smog by creating an advanced transportation industry that could generate jobs and reduce pollution. Dubbed Calstart, the consortium's participating companies hope to create new jobs by developing an aluminum electric vehicle (EV) chassis, equipment to charge the vehicles, appropriate batteries, and other features.
