Small government, Big heart

Discussion in 'Political Science' started by yangforward, May 3, 2023.

  1. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There are committed members of the Blue Team and of the Red Team, and I'll assume both have valid, different, but valid points. And it is possible to satisfy both sets of requirements.

    A Valid Blue Team Point
    The blue team is entirely correct that we should not have people living on the streets, and an even bigger problem is insecure housing - families getting evicted every six months.

    What that does is the insecurity means people live in fear for long periods of time, so that it becomes a habit, and the children in particular become withdrawn, which seems kind of weird but makes a lot of sense.

    Why form relationships with other people when you are just going to move somewhere else at zero notice.

    Most people want children to make less noise, these children make almost none.
     
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  2. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A valid Red Team Point
    Is that as much as the Blue Team wants money to fix things, they only get partly fixed,
    but the money gets spent, often over budget, and huge office buildings get filled with staff.

    In short, Big Government and Bureaucracy.
    Slow, expensive, inefficient, and corrupt.
     
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  3. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    A valid Red Team Point
    What would 'build back beter be like?'.

    Complicated. Special interest groups will receive funds to cover a few holes in the existing patchwork funding.
    It is sure to be profitable to large Democratic Party donors, and require new administration buildings.

    And include some projects that don't even make any sense.
     
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  4. Collateral Damage

    Collateral Damage Well-Known Member

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    Things could not be 'fixed', if the underlying causes aren't addressed. WHY are they getting evicted every 6 months?
     
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  5. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I am a registered Democrat, but as I learned more about the details of what goes on I had to acknowledge that the other side had some valid points.

    I live in a Democrat-run city in a Democrat-run state.
    The governor announced last year a 254 million dollar project to convert the aircraft to running on hydrogen which contains and emits in use, zero carbon.

    The budget was known, the number of staff and pay rates had been announced, the top staff had been chosen, where the hydrogen was to be produced (at the airport)
    and the location of the company and overall plan of the corporate headquarters was depicted by an artist.

    How the hydrogen would be made was not specified nor whether the 'fuel modules' would be pressurized or cryogenic.

    The only way they could produce the hydrogen at the airport is by electrolysis but the large capacity power line is a distance away.

    So the plan they announced doesn't make any sense.
     
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  6. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They sort of fixed that.

    This year they announced they would make the hydrogen either from coal at the disused San Juan power station or in a different way at the Four Corners power station.

    And you don't need a fully functioning brain to realize both methods would have a bigger carbon foot print than the existing use of petroleum jet fuel.

    But many politicians don't know any science and as long as the scam can be kept going there are people who will make money out of it.

    It might be replaced by something that makes sense, but unlike a commercial venture,
    a government funded venture doesn't have to make sense from the start, or even necessarily right through to the finish.

    All these wars are a good example of that.
     
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  7. drluggit

    drluggit Well-Known Member

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    If the blue team don't want folks living on the streets, why do they create policy that enables it, funds it, and otherwise profits off of it. Homelessness is a business for democrats. Why not admit it?
     
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  8. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The US has the same problem as brought Britain - the previous world power - down and that was the class war.

    Homelessness has no obvious value other than as a threat to use against the class above the underclass, to keep them working and to discipline them.

    And disciplining the lower classes is core to keeping the upper classes on top.
     
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  9. Collateral Damage

    Collateral Damage Well-Known Member

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    So the answer to my question would be.... ?

    I am far from top tier, but I've lived in rentals for many years, and have never been evicted. That's what leases are about, unless someone, landlord or tenant, broke the lease?
     
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  10. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The situation here in Albuquerque two years ago was 1,500 homeless counted on the streets, so the Democrats in charge decided to do something.
    They got funding to build 30 tiny homes, 120 square feet each, and each had an attached heating/cooling unit.

    30 homes should be enough, after all we don't want to eliminate the threat of homelessness entirely.

    So the houses have just one electrical line to the pull switch and overhead lighting fixture.
    The heating/cooling unit is mounted on the outside and fully enclosed, and they have no plumbing.
    They won't cost very much, and there is a shower/toilet building, a small office, and some parking.
    The land was to be leased, so total cost including parking and pathway would be around 1.5 million dollars.

    There was an initial announcement with a glamorous picture and a price tag of 4 million dollars.
    I talked to someone on the committee and the next announcement gave a price tag of 3 million dollars.

    Ok, so they toned down the pork barrelling.

    When the project was done and paid for, it was 4.92 million dollars.
     
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  11. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    There's a basic problem with being a charity working within an environment where the contractors are all out to maximize profit.

    You can't be a socialist party working within a Neoliberal framework.

    I think that might be why despite some high ideals, the Democratic Party often looks like a failed version of the Republican Party.

    I know whose ideals I prefer, but in reality the DP just seems like an unsuccessful compromise.
     
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  12. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I've had to move out, with nowhere to go, on a number of occasions, despite always paying the rent on time and not violating any terms of the lease.

    On two occasions the lease was not renewed, so I had to leave with one month's notice. The first time it was the landlord's grand daughter wanted a friend to move into the house next to her, which was where I lived. The second time the landlord's grandson wanted to move into the house I was in, the third time the landlady just never gave leases of anything other than 6 months.
    I was in an area of high demand for rentals, I think that was the core reason.
     
  13. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I'm no expert but I'd suggest for the homeless and people without money or skills, that something like motels would be a good idea.
    For people too far gone for that it would have to be a variety of low security prison or assisted living situation.
    A cooking block would I think be a disaster. Regular fires, unsanitary mess.

    For normal low income people I'd really like to be in a motel type accommodation with a simple kitchen and weekly inspection would be fine with me.
    I'm a very sociable person so I really like to be in a higher density housing situation, and I don't mind noise at all.
    I Kant see what sort of person wood want to live in a bunch of 120sqft tiny homes without showers or toilets.

    It's all about psychology.
     
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  14. Ddyad

    Ddyad Well-Known Member

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    IMO, the first step toward getting the homeless into working class housing would be the elimination of the minimum wage for unskilled workers for menial labor, especially demolition work in the cities. That work, collectively, can be very valuable collectively to all of us, but not valuable enough for individuals or small businesses to hire them at the minimum wage.
    IMO, We should all chip in (subsidies from every level of government) to get them into the labor market where they can live independent productive lives while creating a work history that will allow them to rise.
     
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  15. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I think the D.P. is going to have to shift either to the left or to the right.

    Big government is a way of giving lots of government employees well-paid secure jobs,
    to manage the survival of the poor people who are just subsisting.

    All it does is further distinguish between the rich government office workers, and the poor
    manual workers.Pay the bureaucrats so much they have nothing in
    common with the people they are 'helping'.

    So I phoned the Medicaid office and since none of them were unemployed
    they had never tried to use the system and were just reading out of brochures,
    and I contacted Obamacare, and got totally baffled, and then Medicare and
    discovered that none of the people in the office were retired.

    Well, what a surprise.

    I guess it is 'professionalism' that distinguishes those who need a service
    from the providers, and it is no surprise that in the end it was a volunteer
    who actually knew what was going on.
     
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  16. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's a very creative suggestion, and it makes sense.
    I would suggest it is the US health care mess that makes so many jobs uneconomic.

    The average expenditure in the US on healthcare is 12,900 dollars per person.
    In other high income countries the healthcare costs are half as much, and it is that difference
    prices the US out of so many parts of the world job market.

    Companies in the US save money by moving manufacturing out of the country. The money
    for paying the manufacturing work also goes out of the country, so overall the
    country loses money.

    But the manufacturing company pays less for the manufacturing, because the people
    who would be manufacturing things in the US are now getting their healthcare paid
    by the government.

    So the company saves money, and the government loses money, but it is the company
    that is in the driving seat when it comes to where it buys products from, so the country
    will lose money overall as long as individual company profits come first.
     
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  17. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I recall in 4th grade the teacher saying wars are good for the economy.

    Yes, think of all that money made by the 'defense industry'
    and some of it comes back via the lobbyists to Congress,
    and then they vote more money for the 'defense' budget.

    Where does the money come from?
    Half is raised in taxes from the public,
    and half from printing more dollars and devaluing the US dollar.
    War is only good for the destination of the money, not the source.

    And as the US keeps devaluing the dollar there is a risk
    people will start holding fewer and fewer dollars, and there will
    be a shrinking market for newly printed dollars.
    That's known as killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
     
  18. yangforward

    yangforward Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    War helps finance the weapons industry,
    but people in other countries get killed,
    and the US gets a bad reputation.
    and attacking other countries makes enemies
    so it's actually bad for defense.

    A 10 year Half-Life
    Every war starts with big enthusiasm.
    'The only people against the war in Vietnam
    are hippies and commies.'

    The enthusiasm for wars halves every 10 years
    from the start of the war.
    Every war starts with 'this time we got it right'
    But we never have.
    Even 'the good war' (WW2) had murky beginnings.
     
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  19. Ddyad

    Ddyad Well-Known Member

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    Congress will soon raise the debt to over $50T. Question: Why aren't the streets paved with gold? ;-)

    Best solution: Power and Money to The People.

    1. Get government out of the healthcare business.
    2. Transfer all that revenue into individual vested healthcare accounts for the productive working class.
    3. Allow those who maintain their health and save on healthcare to eventually spend the remainder on other things or pass it on to their heirs.

    Problem solved. Voters will vote for the money whenever they are given a chance.
     
  20. Ddyad

    Ddyad Well-Known Member

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    Given that the US has not achieved a clear unambiguous final victory since 1945 war should clearly be only a last resort.
     
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  21. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    the problem now is that when the money goes to the poor in a city, it is often spent elsewhere vs local

    if a dollar spent touches enough hands, it pays for itself

    the real issue today is that dollars do not touch enough local hands
     
    Last edited: May 5, 2023
  22. FreshAir

    FreshAir Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    now that it's a 50 vote in Senate to seat SC judges, it will always be far right or far left judges
     
  23. Patricio Da Silva

    Patricio Da Silva Well-Known Member Donor

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    I'll comment on your post, but I have a question, based on your Avatar, are you a Romanophile?
     
  24. Collateral Damage

    Collateral Damage Well-Known Member

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    And that's why personal involvement, not just money, is more efficient in reaching those that need help. Your time, your labor, your knowledge, personally applied.

    It can't be beat.
     
  25. kazenatsu

    kazenatsu Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Theoretically this is a good idea, but in reality it's hard to have a government with "a big heart" that is not also big.

    You might want to read up a little about "Fabian Socialism". It's a form of socialism with a little bit more of a Libertarian mindset.
    (It's mostly a general mindset and direction, than really a specific ideology completely unto itself, sort of attempting to try to combine aspects of two other ideologies)
     
    Last edited: Jun 6, 2023

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