Your tax dollars at work

[maxiep]

It's a victory indeed. I never thought I'd see you write that.

If that's the case, then you believe me to be completely irrational.

 

[blazerboy30]

How is it a straw man? I'm just pointing out that while conservatives like to bitch that practically everything the government does is a waste of money, it's clearly not true.

What do you want me to say? That all these badly designed programs you are citing aren't bad? Well, they are.

But people get so caught up on focusing on failure that that's all they ever see. It's important to remember all the progress humanity has made over the past 100 years, and that the US Government has been at the forefront of quite a bit of it.

Nobody (almost nobody) argues that a government can't do ANY good, and always is a waste. THAT is why your argument is a strawman (as if you didn't already know that).

 

[mook]

Nobody (almost nobody) argues that a government can't do ANY good, and always is a waste. THAT is why your argument is a strawman (as if you didn't already know that).

Hey, I read the title of the thread and these were the images that first came to my mind. You can call it a straw man because it's off the topic of "look how we've wasted money", but I think it's dead on for the topic of "your tax dollars at work."

It gets right to the core idea that taxes are now somehow a "burden" when in fact they've often been a pretty good "investment." (The term "tax burden" didn't really even exist in popular parlance until the 1980's.)

I know it's not terribly fashionable to be proud of the US government we all pay taxes for, but I often am. Not always, but often.

If somebody started a thread about what a crummy player Greg Oden is for photographing his dong and getting injured all the time, it's not a straw man argument to point out he's got a great PER and is hugely effective when he's in the game.

Similarly, if there's a thread mostly about government waste entitled "Your tax dollars at work," it's not a straw man argument to point out that the government also does lots of things pretty well.

 

[blazerboy30]

Hey, I read the title of the thread and these were the images that first came to my mind. You can call it a straw man because it's off the topic of "look how we've wasted money", but I think it's dead on for the topic of "your tax dollars at work."

It gets right to the core idea that taxes are now somehow a "burden" when in fact they've often been a pretty good "investment." (The term "tax burden" didn't really even exist in popular parlance until the 1980's.)

I know it's not terribly fashionable to be proud of the US government we all pay taxes for, but I often am. Not always, but often.

If somebody started a thread about what a crummy player Greg Oden is for photographing his dong and getting injured all the time, it's not a straw man argument to point out he's got a great PER and is hugely effective when he's in the game.

Similarly, if there's a thread mostly about government waste entitled "Your tax dollars at work," it's not a straw man argument to point out that the government also does lots of things pretty well.

It is a strawman.

You seem to be making the argument that tax dollars CAN be used for good things. NOBODY was arguing that. This discussion was about how the government is inefficient in using its resources. You're pictures basically say that given an incredibly huge amount of money, the government can produce some good stuff. Well, duh. Unless you are trying to prove that they can do those things very efficiently with the resources they are given, then you are building a strawman.

 

[bluefrog]

goal posts moving, can't follow debate topic, head hurting from confusion..

 

[Denny Crane]

Some things to think about mook.

Your graph of spending to poverty line would be identical if you graphed GDP to poverty. What makes you think it's not entirely related to GDP that fewer people are poor?

Or better yet. How about graphing so-called global warming temperatures vs. poverty. We need more global warming!

NASA's budget is well under $20B. How about we just spend the $20B and not tax everyone for all the shit that doesn't work?

 

[Denny Crane]

Social Security in the red this year
US Postal Service loses $3.5 bln in third quarter
Fannie Mae Seeks $1.5 Billion From U.S. Treasury After 12th Straight Loss

 

[bodyman5001]

I think Mook listed things that most of us would agree that either were good investments or things that one could at least argue are logical things to spend money on. However, if I used one of Mooks pictures and came up with a new idea of how to spend our tax money the way they are doing it now it might go like this............

The government gives Bodyman5001 689,788 dollars to study whether it is possible for an average auto collision tech to build a rocket out of recycled car parts and collision supplies such as two part epoxies and bondo. Part of this money will be to go to Planet Hollywood on the strip as his first other worldly venture and investigate if the large breasted women on this planet are easy.