This excerpt originally appeared in U.S. News & World Report on November 29, 2012.

What's more, these are high paying jobs. In 2010, when the average worker in the United States earned $44,400 in wages and benefits, the average within the aerospace and defense industry was $80,100, according to a study by the consulting firm Deloitte. And 80 percent of that industry's revenue comes from the government. "This, in a nutshell," explains Veronique de Rugy in the January 2013 issue of Reason magazine, "is why it's so hard to cut government spending in general and military spending in particular." "Nearly everyone knows someone who gets paid by the Pentagon."