Question for conservatives about government spending

[Lakhota]

I find it hilarious when wingnuts say that government doesn't produce anything. Neither does my doctor, but life would be hell without him. Government produces a higher quality of life.

How Government Helps Us

Government is Good - A Day in Your Life

Government is Good - Why We Need More, Not Less, Government

 

[DiamondDave]

Where does the Constitution state that the government should maintain highways for use by private vehicles?

Article 1, section 8

Idiot

Quote?

jesus christ.. you don't know or you don't know how to look at the constitution article 1 section 8?

You are indeed an idiot troll

 

[PredFan]

I find it hilarious when wingnuts say that government doesn't produce anything. Neither does my doctor, but life would be hell without him. Government produces a higher quality of life.

How Government Helps Us

Government is Good - A Day in Your Life

Government is Good - Why We Need More, Not Less, Government

No, it's the wingnuts that say we need more government.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Why should government pay for a road that starts at the end of your driveway and leads to any address in the continental United States - but not for food stamps for needy families with children?


Is it simply because you derive a direct benefit from one and not the other?

The government collected gasoline tax to finance the road.

Its not enough.

I was under the impression that food stamps are being given out like candy on halloween.

Then you're wrong.

No, poo, actually, he's right and you're wrong.

"Dependency: When New Gingrich called President Obama "the best food stamp president in American history," the media pooh-poohed it. But, in fact, Obama has aggressively pushed dependence on government for food.

Food stamp enrollment climbed an average 153,000 a month under Bush. Under Obama, it's climbed an average 403,000 a month.

• As of last December, there were 46.5 million on food stamps. That's 65% higher than at any time in the past four decades.

• Today, 14.8% of Americans get food stamps. That's also a record-shattering number. In Bush's last year, the figure was 9.3%.

• Obama's Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack even claimed that all this food stamp spending was accelerating economic growth. "It's the most direct stimulus you can get in the economy during these tough times," he said last August."
The Impoverishment of America: Obama Creates a Nation of Food Stamp Dependents - Investors.com

 

[KevinWestern]

Road's can't earn money, they are inanimate objects.

I'm sorry, should i have specified that total morons need not reply?

Roads most certainly do earn the money invested in them. You just have a brain too small to understand the concept.

Really? How many roads have made it into the Fortune 500?

Are roads taxed on their earnings like people? What does a road spend its money on, anyway? Making itself look good to other roads?

OohPoo - You have zero argument here.

What do you call a machine that can do the work of 50 men in half the amount of time? Is that machine not earning money for the company?

 

[Too Tall]

FOR THE RECORD

If the governments decided to sell off all their highway and road assets to private investors (and use the proceeds to pay down their debt) - I'd be 100% OK with it.


You might ask - why would a liberal support that?

Its pretty simple. The governments' (I mean all levels) subsidization of infrastructure targeted for primary (and near exclusive in most cases) use by private passenger vehicles and freight transportation by truck favors one particular mode of transportation, giving that mode an artificial market advantage. I believe our resident economics genius, eflatminor, would agree that is the case.

Its my belief that if it were up to the market entirely to determine which mode was best, private auto-mobile transport would fall behind and more efficient modes of transportation would become more prevalent. These modes - from the simple economies of scale that you get from buses as opposed to private cares - all the way up to full life-style changes where people place a higher priority on being located closer to work to enable them to walk or bike - are not only more economically efficient, they are better for the environment.

So there you have it. A liberal that can't see why big government needs to meddle so much in the transportation market.


EDIT: Once we take away the artificial advantage in the market given to passenger vehicles, we can also eliminate other "green" subsidy programs, as these programs won't be needed once the market is levelled for ALL modes of transport.

Very good! Now we can eliminate the entire Department of Transportation and the Federal and State gasoline taxes just for starters. That will lower gasoline prices by about 49 cents a gallon.

One unintended consequence would be money for the maintenance of the Interstate Highway System that is an integral part of our National Defense infrastructure. Perhaps that could come from the Defense Department budget.

Are all federal, state and county roads now toll roads? Private investors don't invest in anything unless there is the possibility of a profit. Just asking.

 

[daws101]

Wrong. People have to eat, whether they use food stamps or not. Only fools approve of destructive government programs just because there business happens to benefit in the short run.

And if they don't have the money to eat what do you think they will do about it?

They'll find money to eat. No one ever starved in this country. If you dispute that, then produce evidence of anyone ever dying of starvation in America.

really?:
According to the World Health Organization, 120 Americans died from "lack of food" in 2004.

Starvation rates in the United States are generally not recorded due to the relative infrequency of the occurrence. Generally speaking, most people do not starve to death in America as a result of lack of access to food. A combination of government food programs and private charities help to ensure this. However, Americans do have a serious problem with malnutrition. Starvation (that is, death due to lack of food) in America, in the relatively rare instances that it does occur, is not usually an indication of poverty but rather a variety of other social issues.


Read more: How many people die from starvation each year in America

 

[WillowTree]

Why should government pay for a road that starts at the end of your driveway and leads to any address in the continental United States - but not for food stamps for needy families with children?


Is it simply because you derive a direct benefit from one and not the other?

Here's a better question.. What will you do when the takers outnumber the givers?

 

[daws101]

Why should government pay for a road that starts at the end of your driveway and leads to any address in the continental United States - but not for food stamps for needy families with children?


Is it simply because you derive a direct benefit from one and not the other?

Here's a better question.. What will you do when the takers outnumber the givers?

depends on who's healthier.

 

[WillowTree]

Why should government pay for a road that starts at the end of your driveway and leads to any address in the continental United States - but not for food stamps for needy families with children?


Is it simply because you derive a direct benefit from one and not the other?

Here's a better question.. What will you do when the takers outnumber the givers?

depends on who's healthier.

deflection

 

[daws101]

Here's a better question.. What will you do when the takers outnumber the givers?

depends on who's healthier.

deflection

yes, you are...
real TAKERS take and don't bother about givers.

 

[KevinWestern]

Why should government pay for a road that starts at the end of your driveway and leads to any address in the continental United States - but not for food stamps for needy families with children?


Is it simply because you derive a direct benefit from one and not the other?

Here's a better question.. What will you do when the takers outnumber the givers?

If you're talking from a monetary standpoint - Willow - the trend is "not anytime soon", and by a long shot.

Top 25% of Americans VASTLY out-own and out-earn the bottom 75% by a gigantic margin, and the gap continues to grow. I heard something like the top 1% owns over 40% of ALL of the wealth within the United States, with much of that 40% concentrated at the top 1/10 of the 1%.

Once you have money, it gets easier and easier to make more and more of it.
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