industrial complex
{{Short description|Economic concept}}
{{About|a socioeconomic concept|the Nitzer Ebb album|Industrial Complex (album)|other uses|Industrial complex (disambiguation)}}
{{Economics sidebar}}
The industrial complex is a socioeconomic concept wherein businesses become entwined in social or political systems or institutions, creating or bolstering a profit economy from these systems.{{cite book |last1=Best |first1=Steven |last2=Nocella |first2=Anthony |last3=McLaren |first3=Peter |last4=Kahn |first4=Richard |title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination |date=2011 |publisher=Lexington Books |location=Lanham, Md |isbn=978-0-7391-3698-0}} Such a complex is said to pursue its own interests regardless of, and often at the expense of, the best interests of society and individuals. Businesses within an industrial complex may have been created to advance a social or political goal, but mostly profit when the goal is not reached. The industrial complex may profit financially, or ideologically, from maintaining socially detrimental or inefficient systems.
History
File:Eisenhower in the Oval Office.jpg famously warned about the "military–industrial complex" in his farewell address, 17 January 1961.]]
The concept was popularized by President Dwight Eisenhower{{Cite web|url=https://www.npr.org/2011/01/17/132942244/ikes-warning-of-military-expansion-50-years-later|title=Ike's Warning Of Military Expansion, 50 Years Later|website=NPR.org|language=en|access-date=2019-07-03}} in his Jan. 17, 1961 farewell speech. Eisenhower described a "threat to democratic government" called the military–industrial complex. This complex involved the military establishment gaining "unwarranted influence" over the economic, political, and spiritual realms of American society due to the profitability of the US arms industry and the number of citizens employed in various branches of military service, the armaments industry, and other businesses providing goods to the US army. The "complex" arises from the creation of a multilateral economy serving military goals, as well as the paradox that arises from the goal of the multilateralism (sustained profit) as antithetical to the military's theoretical goal (peace).
In his January 2025 farewell address, President Joe Biden warned about a "tech–industrial complex," echoing Eisenhower's farewell address. In the address, Biden argued that the growth of the tech–industrial complex poses threats to American democracy, supports oligarchy, and enables the abuse of power.{{Cite web |last=Falconer |first=Rebecca |date=2025-01-16 |title=Biden warns against extreme wealth and rise of "tech industrial complex" in farewell address |url=https://www.axios.com/2025/01/16/biden-tech-industrial-complex-wealth-farewell-address-us |access-date=2025-01-17 |website=Axios |language=en}}
During Congressional hearings, in both houses, throughout 2024 and 2025, there was extensive debate and discussion regarding the censorship-industrial complex.{{cite web|url=https://smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/house_committee_on_small_business_-_cic_report_september_2024.pdf|title=Instruments and Casualties of the Censorship-Industrial Complex|website=smallbusiness.house.gov|date=30 September 2024|access-date=30 May 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/committee-activity/hearings/the-censorship-industrial-complex|title=The Censorship-Industrial Complex|website=judiciary.senate.gov|date=25 March 2025|access-date=30 May 2025}}{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/01/capitol-hill-hearing-biden-censorship-trump|title=Capitol Hill hearing on ‘censorship industrial complex’ under Biden based on ‘fiction’, says expert|website=theguardian.com|date=1 April 2025|access-date=30 May 2025}}
Operations
In many cases, the industrial complex refers to a conflict of interest between an institution's purported socio-political purpose and the financial interests of the businesses and government agencies that profit from the pursuit of such purpose, when achieving the stated purpose would result in a financial loss for those businesses. For example, the purported purpose of the US penal system is to assist offenders in becoming law abiding citizens{{Cite web|url=https://www.justice.gov/jmd/organization-mission-and-functions-manual-federal-bureau-prisons|title=Organization, Mission and Functions Manual: Federal Bureau of Prisons|date=2014-08-27|website=www.justice.gov|language=en|access-date=2019-07-03|archive-date=2019-05-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190525113617/https://www.justice.gov/jmd/organization-mission-and-functions-manual-federal-bureau-prisons|url-status=dead}} yet the prison–industrial complex subsists upon high inmate populations, thus relying on the penal system's failure to meet its goal of criminal reform and re-entry. In these types of cases, government agencies are often thought to profit financially from institutional industrialization, perhaps eroding their motivation to legislate such institutions in ways that may be socially beneficial.
The industrial complex concept has also been used informally to denote the artificial creation, inflation, or manipulation of an institution's societal value in order to increase profit opportunities, especially through specialty businesses and niche products. An example of this is the marriage industrial complex,{{Cite web|url=https://everydayfeminism.com/2017/04/wedding-industrial-complex/|title=What the Wedding Industrial Complex Is – And How It's Hurting Our Ideas of Love|date=2017-04-13|website=Everyday Feminism|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}}{{Cite web|url=https://theweek.com/articles/463257/wedding-industrial-complex|title=The wedding industrial complex|date=2013-06-15|website=theweek.com|access-date=2019-07-04}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2019/02/wedding-expos-reveal-a-lot-about-americans-ideals-of-romance/582421/|title=The Wedding-Industry Bonanza, on Full Display|last=Escobar|first=Natalie|date=2019-02-11|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/07/how-the-american-wedding-became-performance-art/533733/|title=How 'I Do' Became Performance Art|last=Garber|first=Megan|date=2017-07-20|website=The Atlantic|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}} where demand for wedding dress makers, wedding venues, wedding planners, wedding cake bakers, wedding rentals companies, wedding photographers, etc, is created by the perceived social necessity of an elaborate wedding ceremony.{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-wedding-industrial-complex_b_1636120|title=The Dark Side Of The Disney Princess Fantasy|date=2012-06-29|website=HuffPost|access-date=2019-07-04}}
Examples
- Military–Industrial Complex — Businesses that supply the army with uniforms, artillery, etc, profit from the continuation of war and will be hurt by peace.{{Cite web|title=Military-Industrial Complex|url=https://www.history.com/topics/21st-century/military-industrial-complex|access-date=2020-11-02|website=HISTORY|date=21 August 2018 |language=en}}
- Prison–Industrial Complex — Businesses access labor from prisoners that is cheaper than civilian labor, thus they profit from high incarceration rates.{{Cite web |date=April 2020 |title=Justice in America Episode 26: The Privatization of Prisons |url=https://theappeal.org/justice-in-america-episode-26-the-privatization-of-prisons/ |access-date=2020-11-02 |website=The Appeal |language=en}}
- Medical–Industrial Complex — Hospitals and pharmaceutical companies require patients to be sick, thus business interests are at odds with the goal of making people healthy.{{cite journal |last1=Relman |first1=Arnold S. |date=23 October 1980 |title=The New Medical-Industrial Complex |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |volume=303 |issue=17 |pages=963–970 |doi=10.1056/NEJM198010233031703 |pmid=7412851}} Inflation of drug and hospital prices contribute to the rising expense of healthcare in the United States.Wohl, Stanley. The Medical Industrial Complex / Stanley Wohl. First edition. New York: Harmony Book, 1984: 85-98Lexchin J, Grootendorst P. Effects of Prescription Drug User Fees on Drug and Health Services Use and on Health Status in Vulnerable Populations: A Systematic Review of the Evidence. International Journal of Health Services. 2004;34(1):101-122. doi:10.2190/4M3E-L0YF-W1TD-EKG0
- Animal–Industrial Complex — Systematic and institutionalized exploitation of non-human animals, which requires breeding and killing animals in the billions in what has come to be known as the "animal holocaust",{{cite book |last=Benatar|first=David|author-link=David Benatar|editor1=S. Hannan |editor2=S. Brennan|editor3=R. Vernon|date=2015|title=Permissible Progeny?: The Morality of Procreation and Parenting|chapter=The Misanthropic Argument for Anti-natalism|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=44|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=J6dBCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA44|isbn=978-0199378128}}{{cite book |last= Best|first=Steven|date=2014 |title=The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution for the 21st Century|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-1137471116}}{{Rp|29–32, 97}}{{cite web |url=https://www.truthdig.com/articles/a-haven-from-the-animal-holocaust-2/ |title= A Haven From the Animal Holocaust |last=Hedges |first=Chris |date=August 3, 2015 |website=Truthdig |publisher= |access-date=August 29, 2021}} threatening human survival{{cite book|first=John|last=Sorenson|title=Critical Animal Studies: Thinking the Unthinkable|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O85kAwAAQBAJ&q=Animal+industrial+complex |access-date=7 October 2018 |year=2014|publisher= Canadian Scholars' Press|location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada|isbn=978-1-55130-563-9}}{{Rp|299}} and resulting in environmental destruction such as climate change,{{Citation |last1= Steinfeld|first1= Henning|last2= Gerber|first2= Pierre|last3= Wassenaar|first3= Tom|last4= Castel|first4= Vincent|last5= Rosales|first5= Mauricio|last6= de Haan|first6= Cees|year= 2006|title= Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options|publisher= FAO|location= Rome|url=http://www.europarl.europa.eu/climatechange/doc/FAO%20report%20executive%20summary.pdf }} ocean acidification, biodiversity loss, spread of zoonotic diseases,{{cite book |last= Nibert |first=David |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren|author-link=David Nibert |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|chapter=Origins and Consequences of the Animal Industrial Complex |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=197–209|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}}{{Rp|198}}{{cite journal | last = Beirne | first = Piers | author-link = | title = Wildlife Trade and COVID-19: Towards a Criminology of Anthropogenic Pathogen Spillover | journal = The British Journal of Criminology | volume = 61 | issue = 3 | pages = 607–626 | publisher = Oxford University Press | date = May 2021 | language = | url = https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article/61/3/607/6031472?login=true | jstor = | issn = 1464-3529 | doi = 10.1093/bjc/azaa084 | id = | mr = | zbl = | jfm = | access-date = 19 September 2021| pmc = 7953978 }}{{cite journal | last = Adams | first = Carol J. | author-link = Carol J. Adams | title = "Mad Cow" Disease and the Animal Industrial Complex: An Ecofeminist Analysis | journal = Organization & Environment | volume = 10 | issue = 1 | pages = 26–51 | publisher = SAGE Publications | date = 1997 | language = | url = https://www.jstor.org/stable/26161653 | jstor = 26161653| issn = | doi = 10.1177/0921810697101007| id = | mr = | zbl = | jfm = | s2cid = 73275679 | access-date = 7 September 2021| url-access = subscription }} and the sixth mass extinction.{{cite journal|vauthors=Ripple WJ, Wolf C, Newsome TM, Galetti M, Alamgir M, Crist E, Mahmoud MI, Laurance WF|title=World Scientists' Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice|journal=BioScience|volume=67|issue=12|pages=1026–1028|date=13 November 2017|doi=10.1093/biosci/bix125|url=http://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sites/sw/files/Warning_article_with_supp_11-13-17.pdf|quote=Moreover, we have unleashed a mass extinction event, the sixth in roughly 540 million years, wherein many current life forms could be annihilated or at least committed to extinction by the end of this century.|hdl=11336/71342|hdl-access=free|access-date=23 October 2021|archive-date=15 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191215010626/https://scientistswarning.forestry.oregonstate.edu/sites/sw/files/Warning_article_with_supp_11-13-17.pdf|url-status=dead}}
- {{anchor|Wedding–industrial complex}}Wedding/Marriage–Industrial Complex — Wedding-related businesses and vendors profit from the growing extravagance and cost of weddings and will be negatively impacted by smaller, cheaper events or elopements, thus they perpetuate the pressure on brides to have expensive weddings.{{Cite web|date=2013-06-15|title=The wedding industrial complex|url=https://theweek.com/articles/463257/wedding-industrial-complex|access-date=2020-11-02|website=theweek.com|language=en}}
- Non-profit industrial complex, or "NPIC", is a term which is used by social justice activists to describe the way non-profit organizations, governments, and businesses are related. The academic genealogy of the term follows the lineage of what social justice activists and scholars such as Angela Davis and Mike Davis (no relation) have called the Prison-Industrial Complex, which, too, follows an earlier critique of the military-industrial complex. Many activists carry out their work as employees of or with the assistance of non-profit organizations. Many of their goals need money in order to be achieved, and nonprofits are registered with the government in order to be allowed to receive large amounts of money legally. These activist nonprofits usually get money from even bigger nonprofits, which are connected to big businesses and rich people who control industries. But because many activists criticize things in society that businesses and rich people support, they might not get the money if they are too critical. So in order to stay funded, they may have to change the ideas they have for improving society to be more acceptable to industry. People who believe these kinds of relationships between activists and industries are harmful to activism use the term non-profit industrial complex as a faster way to discuss these relationships, instead of explaining the whole system each time. They have written many articles and books describing the effects of the NPIC by studying patterns of funding or discussing how the goals of some activists changed once their movements began to receive more money.{{Cite book |title=The revolution will not be funded: beyond the non-profit industrial complex |date=2017 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-6380-4 |editor-last=Incite! Women of Color Against Violence |location=Durham}}{{Citation |title=The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, 21 |date=2020-12-31 |work=The Revolution Will Not Be Funded |pages=21–40 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9780822373001-004 |access-date=2024-04-23 |publisher=Duke University Press|doi=10.1515/9780822373001-004 |isbn=978-0-8223-7300-1 |url-access=subscription }}
Applications
The following have been considered examples of industrial complexes:
- Academic–industrial complex{{cite book |editor-last1=Nocella II |editor-first1=Anthony J. |editor-last2=Best |editor-first2=Steven |editor-last3=McLaren |editor-first3=Peter |date=2010 |title=Academic Repression: Reflections from the Academic Industrial Complex |url= |location= |publisher=AK Press |isbn=978-1904859987}}{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/06/arts/academic-industrial-complex.html|title=Academic Industrial Complex|last=Lee|first=Felicia R.|date=2003-09-06|work=The New York Times|access-date=2019-07-04|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}{{Cite web|url=https://truthout.org/articles/neoliberalism-and-the-academicindustrial-complex/|title="Neoliberalism and the Academic-Industrial Complex"|last=Gandio|first=Jason Del|website=Truthout|date=12 August 2010 |language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-04}}{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Andrea |title=Social-Justice Activism in the Academic Industrial Complex |journal=Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion |date=October 2007 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=140–145 |doi=10.2979/FSR.2007.23.2.140 |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/223421/ |s2cid=144483113 |url-access=subscription }}
- Animal–industrial complex{{cite book |last= Nibert |first=David |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren|authorlink=David Nibert |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|chapter=Origins and Consequences of the Animal Industrial Complex |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=197–209|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}}
- Athletic–industrial complex
- Baby or diaper–industrial complex{{Cite web|url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/10-essential-diaper-changing-tips-for-new-parents_b_5a625adee4b072371ece726a|title=10 Essential Diaper Changing Tips For New Parents|date=2018-01-25|website=HuffPost|access-date=2019-07-03}}{{Cite web|url=https://samirchopra.com/2013/09/13/the-baby-industrial-complex/|title=The Baby Industrial Complex|last=Chopra|first=Samir|date=2013-09-13|website=Samir Chopra|language=en|access-date=2019-07-03}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.nonwovens-industry.com/issues/2018-01/view_features/china-leads-the-way-in-diapers/|title=China Leads the Way in Diapers|website=Nonwovens Industry Magazine - News, Markets & Analysis for the Nonwovens Industry|access-date=2019-07-03}}
- Celebrity–industrial complex
- Global–industrial complex{{cite book |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren|authorlink=David Nibert |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}}
- Immigration–industrial complex{{cite book |last1=Feldman |first1=David B. |title=Marxism and Migration |date=2022 |publisher=Springer International Publishing |isbn=978-3-030-98839-5 |pages=231–261 |chapter-url=https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-98839-5_10 |language=en |chapter=Between Exploitation and Repression: The Immigration Industrial Complex and Militarized Migration Management|series=Marx, Engels, and Marxisms |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-98839-5_10 }}{{cite journal |last1=Trujillo-Pagán |first1=Nicole |title=Emphasizing the 'Complex' in the 'Immigration Industrial Complex' |journal=Critical Sociology |date=January 2014 |volume=40 |issue=1 |pages=29–46 |doi=10.1177/0896920512469888}}{{cite journal |last1=Golash-Boza |first1=Tanya |author-link=Tanya Golash Boza |date=March 2009 |title=The Immigration Industrial Complex: Why We Enforce Immigration Policies Destined to Fail |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9km0k1tn |journal=Sociology Compass |volume=3 |issue=2 |pages=295–309 |doi=10.1111/j.1751-9020.2008.00193.x}} or border–industrial complex{{cite journal |last1=Pérez |first1=Cristina Jo |title=Performing the State's Desire: The Border Industrial Complex and the Murder of Anastasio Hernández Rojas |journal=Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies |date=2022 |volume=43 |issue=1 |pages=93–119 |doi=10.1353/fro.2022.0003|s2cid=246648168 }}{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Cameron |title='Authoritarian neoliberalism' and the Australian border-industrial complex |journal=Competition & Change |date=2019 |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=192–217 |doi=10.1177/1024529418807074|s2cid=158983931 }}
- Medical–industrial complex{{cite book |last= Ismail |first=Asif |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren|authorlink= |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|chapter=Bad For Your Health: The U.S. Medical Industrial Complex Goes Global|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=211–232|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}} or medical–pharmacological industrial complex
- Military–industrial complex
- Military-digital complex
- Military-entertainment complex
- Military–industrial–media complex{{cite book |last= Miller |first=Toby |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren|authorlink=Toby Miller |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|chapter=The Media-Military Industrial Complex|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=97–115|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}}
- Nonprofit–industrial complex{{Cite web|url=https://incite-national.org/beyond-the-non-profit-industrial-complex/|title=Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex|date=2018-08-01|website=INCITE!|language=en-US|access-date=2020-01-29}} or NGO–industrial complex{{cite journal |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/272587189 |doi=10.2307/3183327 |jstor=3183327 |via=ResearchGate|title=The NGO-Industrial Complex |last1=Gereffi |first1=Gary |last2=Garcia-Johnson |first2=Ronie |last3=Sasser |first3=Erika |journal=Foreign Policy |year=2001 |issue=125 |pages=56–65 }}
- Peace–industrial complex
- Pharmaceutical–industrial complex
- Politico-media complex
- Poverty industrial complex
- Prison–industrial complex{{Cite web|url=http://criticalresistance.org/about/not-so-common-language/|title=What is the PIC? What is Abolition? – Critical Resistance|language=en-US|access-date=2019-07-03}} or criminal (justice) industrial complex{{cite book |last=Nagel |first=Mechthild |editor1=Steven Best|editor2=Richard Kahn|editor3=Anthony J. Nocella II|editor4=Peter McLaren |editor1-link= Steven Best|editor4-link=Peter McLaren |date=2011|title=The Global Industrial Complex: Systems of Domination|chapter=The Criminal (Justice) Industrial Complex |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |pages=117–131|url=https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780739136973/The-Global-Industrial-Complex-Systems-of-Domination |isbn=978-0739136980}}
- White savior industrial complex{{Cite web|last= Cole |first= Teju | date= 21 March 2012 |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/03/the-white-savior-industrial-complex/254843/ |title=The White-Savior Industrial Complex |website= The Atlantic |language=en-US|access-date=2023-05-20}}