U.S. Government
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11 Responses to “U.S. Government”
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Dude, couldn’t they put that 37 million towards preventing out of prison rape in the first place?
Seems like a vicious cycle to me…rape someone, go to prison..get raped. Imagine if you were aware of the penalties of rape, got counseling for your problems, and avoided doing the crime all together. That would prevent 2 rapes through education/rehabilitation.
If that approach doesnt work…..soap on a rope is a cheap alternative.
feed the inmated saltpeter… or whatever that shit is that keeps you from being able to get your johnson hard. that’d be a lot less than 37 mil, and it would solve feeding the animals at the same time. MREs baby.
Its the Law of Large Numbers. I’m so sick of all these comments about 10 million here and 30 million there. Million is not even a decimal point on the government books. Why does it cost so much? Becuase there are almost 2,000,000 people in prison, with probably well over 1,000 prisons(couldnt find that number). Thats about $30,000 a year per prison which means they probably allocate half of one person’s salary to handle rape prevention.
While that seems like alot, its not. A tax cut that gives everyone a dollar costs the gov’t 200 million dollars. Thats just the way it is when you have this many people. People cant imagine large numbers so they freak out. Its such a tired argument and frankly a waste of time.
Chris
I just know how lots of little numbers add up. And when you see a problem that has a large number allocated to it and then see the breakdown amongst 27 different little groups that don’t exercise the power that they might be able to exercise if they didn’t have so much repeated overhead all over the place, it bugs me a little bit. I am not saying that it shouldn’t be part of the program, but it is all a part of the government having disparate systems that, in some cases, could hit problems much harder if they worked together. It is a problem with the legislation and allocation.
I understand your point Chris, but it almost seems like with the amount of money that we have in our governmental budget that some of the fat should be reduced, if not cut, in order to help balance the budget.
So, maybe the prison number wasn’t a great example, but how many alert systems do we have for various things? They all have different names. Are they running on the same networks with the same people organizing them?
I am not for cutting and running, but I wish I could really study some of the programs and see some consolidation of duties in order to save some cash off of the bottom line in our annual budgets.
Believe me Craig, I am definitely not supporting the fat in our government programs. I have changed my mind on this recently though. All these “wasteful” federal programs employ thousands and thousands of people. Govt spending, no matter what, is a crucial part of the economy. So what if the government pays $100,000 to a guy to save a beached whale off Nantucket. That used to piss me off. But that pays him and his crew who will pump that money back into the economy. As far as I’m concerned, if a federal program doesnt at least have the word billion on it, it is not worth scrutinizing.
However, (here comes the republican in me) if you want ot cut waste, you dont have to go any further than each and every one of our wasteful cities and states. From their $80,000 a year inspectors, $50,000 secretaries, $60,000 a year toll collectors. These cronies are the ones that need to go. For the most part our city and state taxes are what really have an impact on our daily lives, and that is where waste occurs that actually is significant. $100,000 is not a deciaml point in a town budget, yet they all have some hack building inspector who just goes around giving people a hard time, if you’re lucky enough to reach him on the 2 days he’s in the “office”.
Dont get me started…
Chris
Not to mention in some communities where these people (gasp) take kickbacks to get things done. Business isn’t even possible without the inspector getting a dead president.
I think I’m missing the point about state and city taxes having a bigger impact on my daily life. My state tax rate is 5%ish. My property (town) tax rate accounts for 10%ish of our earnings, and pays for many services we use directly. Our marginal Federal tax rate, if we count FICA, is well over 30%. I’m not saying that states and municipalities aren’t often wasteful, but the bite is nowhere near as big.
Without making a value judgement about the relative merits of whale saving and secretarying, I also don’t understand the difference between paying some guy $100K to save a whale and paying some secretary $50K to keep some pol’s schedule. Don’t they both put that money back into the economy?
Believe me that nobody is making $100k to save a whale! However, you should be focusing on the MANY well-paid managers of the whale-saver.
A couple things…
What I meant about state and city taxes having a bigger impact is what you said in your statement Chris. I’m talking about the pothole outside your house getting fixed, the quality of YOUR town’s school, and those daily things that affect YOU. Our federal money is going to things that affect all of us but on a much more indirect level.
Second, there is a big difference between the gov’t spedning and town spending. Government spending IS supposed to stimulate the economy. Not Brookline, MA spending. As a percentage of a budget, that inspector is much higher than any whale saving project. Also, like Craig said. Alot of the government waste is because of the large size which happens in companies too. Town waste is inexcusable. Its mostly due to the cronies and there friends. You know that toll collector handing out the tickets on the MASS pike making 60K(who is not needed cause the lane next to him is a machine) is some congressman’s brother-in-law.
Lastly, I specifically remember on the news the cost of saving the whales off Nantucket was in the hundreds of thousands. That is not going to a guy. Probably the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.
Chris
In our system, virtually all government at any level functions as a reallocation mechanism for capital. It hoovers money away from individuals and corporations (and the debt markets) and redistributes it to other individuals and corporations. In some cases it’s been fantastically successful (e.g. the post Depression years) and in others it’s been a travesty (e.g. the 1981 Federal bailout of the S&Ls). I guess my point is that as long as the Feds can blow billions with even small missteps, it makes sense to keep an eye on them, for our own sakes as individual taxpayers, and also for the sake of our economic health as a nation. Keep your eye on the currency markets. The world has become very wary of this borrower nation and the adjustment has only just started.
(I agree that on the Federal level, there are bigger fish to fry than some $37MM prison rape program.)
don’t cut gov’t spending. I work for a small company subcontracted by the US, English, French and a few asian countries’ governments. the National Ignition Facility is paying my [possibly too large] salary right now, and without the couple billion that are going into NIF, i wouldn’t have a job. Here’s to overspending. Nostrovia!