Internet article review: the Department of Defense recently sent a proposal to Congress requesting a single-round of base closures to better use scarce resources.

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Article Review

Economics examines how people use their scarce resources in an attempt to satisfy their unlimited wants (Colander). For example, the Department of Defense recently sent a proposal to Congress requesting a single-round of base closures to better use scarce resources. This proposal called the Efficient Facilities Initiative (EFI) amends and improves the former Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) legislation. The legislation, if approved by Congress, would allow the Department of Defense to reduce infrastructure by closing, consolidating or realigning bases and facilities in the United States. The ultimate purpose of EFI is to better match facilities (supply) to forces (demand).

These changes are an essential step in the transformation and modernization of the armed forces. Currently, the military is operating at approximately 25% more infrastructure capacity than it needs to meet their operational support and training needs. Eliminating excess infrastructure capacity (unlimited wants) is just one part of EFI's purpose.

There are three primary reasons why EFI is necessary:

1) The Post-Cold War reduction in forces was not paralleled by similar reductions in facilities, creating a "tooth-to-tail" ratio imbalance. We are spending too much money on the tail (facilities) and not enough on the tail (forces).

2) Military installations must be restructured to support air, land and sea missions needed to meet future threats.

3) Excess facilities waste scarce resources on maintaining infrastructure that are no longer sized and positioned to support the military forces in the most efficient manner possible.

In an economics point of view, EFI is an attempt to make the wisest use of limited defense dollars. There will be savings after the initial start-up costs from the effort. The savings produced by EFI will be used to better support our people, modernize our forces, improve the remaining infrastructure and ultimately save the taxpayer up...