Comment Don't use black powder? (Score 1) 201
I mean, if black powder is illegal, use something else that ignites easily, like gun cotton...
Bwahahaha, I guess you are modded insightful because it is the new funny? I actually lol-ed a little at your comment. Compared to many areas in Europe, yes, but compared to many of the better scoring nations, and especially the #1 scorer, Japan, which is well known for work-a-haulism (among other -ahaulisms), Americans definitely are not work-ahaulics.
Actually, the average America works more hours per year than the average Japanese by about ~40 hours. The times vary from year to year. Last year (2012) it was 45 hours, but in 2011, it was over 60. Go see for yourself:
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=ANHRS
As for education, I do have to agree with you for education up to and including high school education. The current system in the USA is completely broken, which isn't surprising as it was designed in the 1800's, not the 21st century. It is still based on concepts and criteria to produce factory line workers and farmers, not critical thinkers, engineers, inventors, entrepreneurs, or artists. Even the very concept of the "school year" itself is based on 1800's agricultural needs of the children to be home working on the farm planting/harvesting crops, which is why there exists such a thing as "summer vacation". More is lost in the 2-3 months of "summer vacation" than is taught in 2 months of classes (more for students of low income families). That actually means that in terms of education knowledge gained, our students only have 5-6 months of school while countries that do not have a 2-3 month summer vacation received 10-11 months in the same time period. It is no wonder our students do not do as well....
As for the House of Representatives' right to grant or withhold money, that is not a matter of opinion either. You can check the Constitution of the United States. All spending bills must originate in the House of Representatives, which means that Congressmen there have a right to decide whether or not they want to spend money on a particular government activity.
Except that Obamacare is already fully funded and isn't subject to yearly budgetary allocations, since there is no money that is given to it on a yearly basis by the government. This is why you see that the exchanges opened up to people on October 1st, even though the rest of the government shutdown, because it is already fully funded separately, and thus not subject to the whims of the House, excepting for the complete overturning/modification of it via a new law that needs to get past the House, the Senate, and a possible Presidential veto, which the last 48 times the House attempted to do so have failed...
Perhaps the biggest of the big lies is that the government will not be able to pay what it owes on the national debt, creating a danger of default. Tax money keeps coming into the Treasury during the shutdown, and it vastly exceeds the interest that has to be paid on the national debt.
Even if the debt ceiling is not lifted, that only means that government is not allowed to run up new debt. But that does not mean that it is unable to pay the interest on existing debt.
Really? Better check your "facts" on that. Social Security will have a bill of $12 billion due on the 10/23, and interest on bonds of $6 billion on 10/31. Both of those exceed the daily tax income, which means the government will not have enough in the bank on that day to pay the bill due that day, which means they default....
You want to prove me wrong? Want to win this debate? read on...but first, I don't need your reductive lecture on how procurement works.
Well obviously you did otherwise it wouldn't have been needed to tell you the obvious fatal flaw in your initial reasoning that budgets are always spent this way when you are dealing with a budget that accounts for incidentals, replacement parts, and consumables especially when you don't know what of those will be expended, wear out, or otherwise need more of to meet supply demands.
It's a free for all corporate giveaway. The **prime** example of government waste that shows the glaring lies of Obama's critics and GOP'ers in general.
To falsify my point, say your ramblings about imaginary and unapplicable replacement cycles is true. Almost all government divisions that have budgets for contractors do exactly as you say. Fine.
In that scenario you are still wrong.
Why? The question is, is this spending justified?
Yes, the spending is justified. Why? Because someone did a 3 or 5 year plan 1-2 years ago which went over the lists of all the things that are needed by the different departments. Those lists create a "wish list" of things that we can spend money on this year and not need to spend the money on next year. Most companies call it a capital expense plan, in which they perform a capital pull-in from the next year or more in advance on items which you can purchase now when you do have the money and save on purchasing later when you might not have the money due to some other unexpected expense.
The answer is no...no matter when people spend their budgets on contractors, the problem is the same **IT IS A WASTEFUL GIVEAWAY TO CORPORATIONS FOR NO GAIN TO CITIZENS**
So your solution is to not spend money on contractors, meaning you now have to hire in-house teams of scientists, engineers, and designers, purchase manufacturing facilities, hire manufacturing line workers, managers, HR staff, etc., etc., etc., duplicating many of the facilities that other companies already have built, expending trillions of capital to duplicate and compete against already in production companies across VAST business sectors such as CPU chip design, software engineering, computer manufacturing, automotive construction, heavy machinery construction, robotics, aerospace manufacturing, naval manufacturing, electronics manufacturing, etc., etc., etc... Yeah, that sure isn't a waste of tax payer dollars. Someone never went to business school as you obviously never learned how difficult it is and expensive it is to have to own and maintain all of those things. This is why most companies don't own their manufacturing, it is outsourced. Oh, you thought that BMW car you bought was made by BMW? They may have designed it, but that seat was made by another company. The dials used in the dash was made by another one. The tires were made by yet another. The wheels inside the tires was made by yet another. The bolts holding on the wheels were made by yet another. The glass for the windows and windshield were made by yet another company, etc., etc., etc., all contracted out...
Trying to be happy is like trying to build a machine for which the only specification is that it should run noiselessly.
