> the biggest U.S. arms companies employ ~700.000 people

Which is about one-half of Walmart's employee base, but the USA doesn't base its foreign policy on the whims of the Walton family.

What's more persuasive about the military-industrial-government complex is that most of its leaders emerged from the same universities and think-tanks. Essentially they share the same viewpoints and philosophies and can pull the appropriate levers in the domains that the control and they freely move from one domain to another.