It's kind of funny that people keep making these general claims as though the money is wasted or goes to some unproductive purpose. Personally, I don't consider subsidized housing for the lower-class to be wasteful or a misuse of money. I wonder how many people who decry wasteful government spending would consider road and highway construction a waste of money. If traffic moves to slow to work for your pleasure, get a job closer to home or vice versa. After all, this is the land of opportunity and nobody FORCED you to buy a home far from work. Highway spending is all government financed, but few complain about that as a waste. Funny, when government spends money on something from which an individual doesn't receive an immediate and personal gain and suddenly it's labeled a government pork project. As far as people looking to government to solve some social ills and inequities, I don't see many people volunteering their income to help the less fortunate. Many people seem to have money to burn when donating to their favorite P.A.C. or a nonprofit "charity" that sponsors their child's sports or music program. What about donating money to something from which they receive NO individual gain? I live in a collective society and accept the fact that some government spending does not improve my neighborhood. If government cancelled programs to which there was any objection, nothing would ever get accomplished. Discussion of government spending often spins into a discussion of simplifying the tax code or attempts to make it fairer. Keep in mind that almost all of the tax code consists of rules lobbied by and for corporate Amerika. Very little of the income tax code applies to individuals. As to the fairness question, most of the lower and middle class class are in a higher marginal tax bracket than the well-to-do. The latter get a 7.6% marginal tax break (no FICA or Medicare). So the middle class pay 32.6%; the wealthy pay 20% or less. Talk about disincentives! matthew black california state university, long beach Note: Opinions expressed herein are totally mine and may not represent those of my employer. On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 13:43:49 -0500 "Brian Johnson" <bjohnson@drtel.com> wrote:
OK. Wasted was a poor choice of words, but even if the money does get back to the people in some way, it is not doing so in a way that really accomplishes something. Private companies do not invest in something that will not have a return that benefits them. Political spending sometimes will have no return other than political capital.
It's like buying candy. You can buya a ton of it, and either eat it or give it away, but in the end it will be gone and very little will be accomplished other than the kids who now love you for doing it.
So wasted was a bad term to use. How about used with little return if any.
- Brian J.
-----Original Message----- From: owner-nanog@merit.edu [mailto:owner-nanog@merit.edu] On Behalf Of Matthew Black Sent: Thursday, August 11, 2005 1:20 PM To: nanog@merit.edu Subject: Re: Way OT: RE: @Home's 119 domain names up for sale
On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 11:57:25 -0500 "Brian Johnson" <bjohnson@drtel.com> wrote:
Holy communist manifesto batman!
Let's let the government fix everything. Hold on, hasn't that been tried already? Oh yeah the USSR. That was a blazing success.
Conservatives generally aren't against the government helping in areas NO ONE ELSE CAN. It is obvious to everyone involved that the government largely screws up these sorts of "initiatives" and most of the money ends up wasted anyways. It's these pork projects that kill us.
- Brian J.
Wasted? Please elaborate. It's not like the money vanishes. The money goes somewhere, usually to pay non-government salaries. Corporate Amerika is wasteful too: WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, and Halliburton. These are companies that hurt the lives of millions of Americans, including 40,000,000 citizens of California who pay double the national average for electricity because Enron gamed the system. We pay 15 cents per kilowatt! That wasn't completely the government's fault.
matthew black california state university, long beach
Note: Options expressed are mine and do not necessarily represent my employer.