Nothing generates unemployment like liberal policy

[P@triot]

And yes, I do run a business. I have been self-employed for more than two decades. If I want to make more money, I work more, or harder, or more effectively. I don't lobby my Congressman to give me some free money for doing nothing. That is like sucking off the teat of the government sow.

No you don't. You've never run a business in your life. That much is painfully obvious. And if the government has all of the businesses profits, they can't invest in people, training, new technology, marketing, or any one of hundreds of things to make a business grow.

Thanks for playing buttercup. But your own argument defeats itself. If a business isn't entitled to more money for not doing anything more, than government sure as hell isn't entitled to more money for not doing anything more.

 

[Winston]

And yes, I do run a business. I have been self-employed for more than two decades. If I want to make more money, I work more, or harder, or more effectively. I don't lobby my Congressman to give me some free money for doing nothing. That is like sucking off the teat of the government sow.

No you don't. You've never run a business in your life. That much is painfully obvious. And if the government has all of the businesses profits, they can't invest in people, training, new technology, marketing, or any one of hundreds of things to make a business grow.

Thanks for playing buttercup. But your own argument defeats itself. If a business isn't entitled to more money for not doing anything more, than government sure as hell isn't entitled to more money for not doing anything more.

Yes, I own my own business. But I will be honest. I don't work that much anymore. Residual income. And investments. I mean seriously, why practice my profession when I am taxed more on that income than the income I can generate by speculating. I am taxed half as much on long term capital gains as earned income. So what is the government telling me?

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved. If those companies get a tax cut, or if I do for that matter, I am much more likely to SAVE the money and attempt to get me some unearned income taxed at twenty percent rather than invest and generate earned income taxed at forty percent. In other words, I, like all those other businesses, will seek to collect RENTS. And those rents don't expand the economy, they contract it.

 

[P@triot]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent.

Spending money is not "work".

 

[P@triot]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Forest Service to Replace Windows in Visitor Center Closed in 2007 (Amboy, WA) - $554,763
Despite having no plans to reopen a shuttered visitor center at Mount St. Helens in Washington State, the U.S. Forest Service is spending more than $554,000 to replace its windows.

2. “Dance Draw” - Interactive Dance Software Development (Charlotte, NC) - $762,372
The University of North Carolina at Charlotte received more than $760,000 in stimulus funds to help develop a computerized choreography program that its creators believe could lead to a YouTube-like “Dance Tube” online application.

3. North Shore Connector to Professional Sports Stadiums, Casino (Pittsburgh, PA) - $62 million
ederal money has covered the vast majority of costs, with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) agreeing to provide $348 million—nearly the full original cost—leaving state and local governments responsible for a small fraction.30 Even with that level of assistance, the Port Authority still threatened to shut down the project due to the enormous cost overruns. With an infusion of more than $62 million in stimulus money, the project was taken off life support.

4. FEMA Stalls Two Fire Stations More Than a Year, Increases Costs (San Antonio, TX) - $7.3 million
The City of San Antonio is hoping that there aren’t any fires for at least a year in the vicinity of two planned fire stations, thanks to “help” from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

5. Abandoned Train Station Converted Into Museum (Glassboro, NJ) - $1.2 million
Taxpayers may not be happy to learn that they are paying for one broken down train station twice. The Glassboro train station was built in 1860 and closed in 1971. Unused for nearly 40 years, it now sits boarded up and riddled with graffiti.

6. Ants Talk. Taxpayers Listen (San Francisco, CA) - $1.9 million
The California Academy of Sciences is receiving nearly $2 million to send researchers to the Southwest Indian Ocean Islands and east Africa, to capture, photograph, and analyze thousands of exotic ants.

7. Stimulus Project Threatens Pastor’s House (Newark, OH) - $1.8 million
An Ohio road project received $1.8 million in stimulus funds, despite the threat it poses to the residents of over two dozen homes next to it. Pastor Greg Sheets of Newark, Ohio’s Truth Tabernacle 57 has already lost his front yard to the project, and could lose his entire home.

8. Old Abandoned Iron Furnace Gets Facelift after Money Squandered on Same Project Years Before (Fitchburg, KY) – $357,710
Once considered ahead of its time, the Fitchburg Furnace in Kentucky was abandoned after just five years in service—it then sat unused for nearly 140 more. Now it is getting a $357,710 makeover to repair stonework on the old structure and allow historians to conduct research.

9. Power Plant Construction Won’t Start for at Least Two Years (Kern County, CA) - $308 million
BP may have found itself staring down huge financial losses over the past several months, but executives can take solace knowing that a stimulus windfall will help offset them. On September 28, 2009, Hydrogen Energy California, LLC (HECA), owned largely by BP, was awarded $308 million86 in stimulus funds to “generate more environmentally friendly electricity by capturing carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels.”

10. Town Replaces New Sidewalks With Newer Sidewalks That Lead to Ditch (Boynton, OK) - $89,298
People around Boynton, Oklahoma were left scratching their heads after the town was awarded nearly $90,00096 to replace a quarter-mile stretch of sidewalk that was replaced only five years ago. Another resident, Mike Lance, noted that “the best indication of the absurdity of the project is what the contractor did with a section of sidewalk at the north end of town – one that fronts no homes or businesses, and leads directly into a ditch.”

 

[P@triot]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Spaceport to Nowhere. The Missile Defense Agency continues to fund a rocket launch site in Alaska that could cost the organization up to $80.4 million. The facility is 20 years old, “rarely used,” and was established with an $18 million earmark. “The millions spent to date on this launch complex have not made America safer from potential missile attacks from foreign adversaries,” the report states. “To the contrary, it has siphoned away tens of millions of dollars that could have been better spent on more promising initiatives.”

2. Fishes on a Treadmill. How long can a mudskipper use a treadmill? The University of California-San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is using grant money from the National Science Foundation to answer just that. The study found that mudskippers “can exercise longer and recover quicker under higher oxygen concentrations.” The grant also is slated to be used “to purchase what one of the researchers jokingly refers to as ‘all the toys’ as well as travel costs for junkets to conferences.”

3. Holograms at a Comedy Museum. The National Comedy Center, a nonprofit in New York, received a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to create a comedy museum. The museum will feature holograms of dead comedians. A New York state lawmaker has promised to bring an additional $3 million in federal funding. “I’m not kidding you,” Flake said at Heritage. “It’s a comedy club that, unfortunately, gets your tax dollars.”

4. Partying College Students. Part of a $5 million grant from a section of the National Institutes of Health paid for a researcher at Brown University to study the partying habits of college students. Some findings: “Greek members engaged in more risky health behaviors … than non-Greek members,” and college students tend to increase their intake of alcohol on game days. “According to the researchers,” Flake said, “all the games had the same goal—causing the participants to become intoxicated. I think that falls into the obvious category.”

5. Do Boys or Girls Play More With Dolls? A study executed by Vanderbilt University with money from the National Eye Institute and National Science Foundation examined “whether boys or girls spend more time playing with Barbie dolls.” The report surveyed about 300 men and women and cost over $300,000. The study also found, in the words of Flake’s report, that “women were much better at identifying the correct Barbies while the men were more likely to recognize the Transformers.”

6. Singing Dinosaurs. A study conducted with partial funding from $450,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation examined whether dinosaurs were able to sing. The two-year study examined, in part, whether dinosaurs ever possessed a syrinx. The lead author said the study was “another important step to figuring out what dinosaurs sounded like.”

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

7 Ways the Government Wastes Your Tax Dollars

 

[edthecynic]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Spaceport to Nowhere. The Missile Defense Agency continues to fund a rocket launch site in Alaska that could cost the organization up to $80.4 million. The facility is 20 years old, “rarely used,” and was established with an $18 million earmark. “The millions spent to date on this launch complex have not made America safer from potential missile attacks from foreign adversaries,” the report states. “To the contrary, it has siphoned away tens of millions of dollars that could have been better spent on more promising initiatives.”

2. Fishes on a Treadmill. How long can a mudskipper use a treadmill? The University of California-San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is using grant money from the National Science Foundation to answer just that. The study found that mudskippers “can exercise longer and recover quicker under higher oxygen concentrations.” The grant also is slated to be used “to purchase what one of the researchers jokingly refers to as ‘all the toys’ as well as travel costs for junkets to conferences.”

3. Holograms at a Comedy Museum. The National Comedy Center, a nonprofit in New York, received a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to create a comedy museum. The museum will feature holograms of dead comedians. A New York state lawmaker has promised to bring an additional $3 million in federal funding. “I’m not kidding you,” Flake said at Heritage. “It’s a comedy club that, unfortunately, gets your tax dollars.”

4. Partying College Students. Part of a $5 million grant from a section of the National Institutes of Health paid for a researcher at Brown University to study the partying habits of college students. Some findings: “Greek members engaged in more risky health behaviors … than non-Greek members,” and college students tend to increase their intake of alcohol on game days. “According to the researchers,” Flake said, “all the games had the same goal—causing the participants to become intoxicated. I think that falls into the obvious category.”

5. Do Boys or Girls Play More With Dolls? A study executed by Vanderbilt University with money from the National Eye Institute and National Science Foundation examined “whether boys or girls spend more time playing with Barbie dolls.” The report surveyed about 300 men and women and cost over $300,000. The study also found, in the words of Flake’s report, that “women were much better at identifying the correct Barbies while the men were more likely to recognize the Transformers.”

6. Singing Dinosaurs. A study conducted with partial funding from $450,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation examined whether dinosaurs were able to sing. The two-year study examined, in part, whether dinosaurs ever possessed a syrinx. The lead author said the study was “another important step to figuring out what dinosaurs sounded like.”

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

7 Ways the Government Wastes Your Tax Dollars

Fake News

 

[P@triot]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Swedish massages for rabbits: $387,000
The National Institutes of Health paid this six figure sum to the National Center for Complimentary and Alternative Medicine in order to discern whether Swedish massages would be helpful in recovering from an illness.

“A group of rabbits received daily rub downs from a 'mechanical device that simulates the long, flowing strokes used in Swedish massages.'”

2. Teaching Mountain Lions to Ride a Treadmill: $856,000
The National Science Foundation shelled out nearly a million taxpayer dollars to determine if captive mountain lions could be trained to ride a treadmill. The University of California-Santa Cruz researcher even boasted about receiving the grant saying, “People just didn’t believe you could get a mountain lion on a treadmill, and it took me three years to find a facility that was willing to try.” If anyone was wondering, it took the lions all of eight months to learn.

3. Studying how many times “hangry” people stab a voodoo doll: $331,000
After teaching mountain lions about treadmills, the National Science Foundation also funded a study to come up with the self evident conclusion that hungry people tend to be more angry and aggressive. They tested this theory by allowing spouses to poke pins into voodoo dolls as their “hanger” grew.

“Over the course of twenty-one consecutive evenings, 107 couples were given a chance to stick up to 51 pins into a voodoo doll representing their spouse. The pin-pushing happened in secret, away from the other partner. Participants then recorded the number of pins they poked into the dolls. Those tests revealed what may already be obvious to many couples: a spouse with low blood sugar was an angrier one, and stuck more pins in the doll.”

4. Studying the gambling habits of monkeys: $171,000
Another NSF grant funded the study of gambling monkeys. Under the guise of studying the “hot-hand bias” in human gamblers, the University of Rochester devised a computer game, taught monkeys to play it, and studied how they responded to winning and losing. A doctoral candidate who worked on the study seemed pleased to learn, “Luckily, monkeys love to gamble.” Taxpayers, on the other hand, will not be pleased to find out this study is set to continue through May of 2018.

5. Producing the children’s musical: Zombie in Love: $10,000
The National Endowment for the Arts funded the production of a musical to die for. Aimed at children four and up, the musical tells the story of Mortimer the teenage zombie and his quest to find love and happiness. The NEA officials justified this use of tax money by saying that Mortimer “exemplifies anyone who has felt like an outsider.”

6. Funding a “Stoner Symphony”: $15,000
The location of this performance shouldn’t shock anyone. What is sure to shock taxpayers is the amount of their money that was provided to the Colorado Symphony Orchestra to host “Classically Cannabis: The High Note Series.” Not only was the program pot-related, the people were encouraged to inhale (and chow down) while watching.

“One of the three concerts, called Summer Monsoon, advertised on its website this way, ‘Smoke up and fill your belly with Manna’s spiced pork, Sesame Seed Teriyaki Chicken, & Filipino Empanadas.’”

7. Subsidizing Alpaca Poop: $50,000
In addition to this project making the cut for Sen. Coburn, this little gem was also covered by CNSNews.com last month. The U.S. Department of Agriculture shelled out a hefty sum to help develop and market Alpaca “Poop Packs” for use as fertilizer. This is government waste, literally.

8. Synchronized Swimming for Sea Monkeys: $307,524
This project garnered the support of three government agencies (National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation). In an effort to study the swirl created when sea monkeys move throughout the water, researchers developed a “laser guided,” “choreographed” team of synchronized swimming sea monkeys.

9. Produce a “Hallucinatory” Roosevelt/Elvis show: $10,000
In what could quite possibly be the weirdest project on this list, the NEA helped fund the production of a show about the hallucinatory journey of a girl pretending to be Elvis and gallivanting around with America’s 26th president.

“In one scene, Ann hallucinates that she is Elvis, and that she and Teddy are romping around their hotel room in their underwear, with Teddy eventually riding around on Elvis’s back as though he were a bucking bronco.”

10. Funding Climate Change Alarmist Video Game: $5.2 million
As polls show climate change is dead last on the Americans’ list of priorities, the NSF felt the need to help “spur climate change activism.” They paid Columbia University to develop a video game entitled “Future Coast,” where rising seas cause mass chaos and weather calamities of epic proportions. The story is set to a bunch of voicemails from the future describing the anarchy.

“One caller claims “neo-luddites” are out to kill anyone with scientific knowledge,496 and another paints a cryptic image of a zombie apocalypse saying that ‘when you see them, you will know what to do.’”

11. Teaching Kids to Laugh: $47,000
The National Endowment for the Humanities funded classes at UCLA and ButlerUniversity to teach college students about laughter. In seminar’s like “Why is it funny” student will presumably learn “how laughter plays with our perceptions” and “whether comedy is a ‘guy thing’.”

““As a final project, students will develop either a stand-up routine or a, “comedy piece using the tools of digital storytelling.”

12. Developing a real-life Iron Man Suit: $80 million
It seems the DoD is attempting to capitalize on the popularity of the Iron Man movies in order to develop its very own real-life replica. Dubbed TALOS (Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit), the Pentagon will spend the next four years trying to build a suit made “of military super-armor to withstand bullets and carry hundreds of pounds, all powered by [a] futuristic energy source.” But, there’s one slight problem, it doesn’t work:

“And while a promotional video for the TALOS program shows bullets ricocheting off a cartoon soldier dressed in the suit, field tests have so far found soldiers struggling to run, dive, and shoot when using the real thing.”

13. Tweeting at Terrorists: $3 million
The State Department is aiming to fight terrorists in ISIS and al-Qaeda online as well as on the battlefield. Its new program is intended to “counter the sophisticated propaganda machines of terrorist groups around the globe.” However, their Twitter campaign, “Think Again, Turn Away” has been almost universally panned as not only ineffective but also counter-productive.

“A recent commentator in Time Magazine put it more bluntly, saying, ‘this outreach by the U.S. government is not only ineffective, but also provides jihadists with a stage to voice their arguments...’”

14. Predicting the End of Humanity: $30,000
As opposed to finding new ways to explore the solar system, NASA is instead spending its budget on a study to predict how the world will end. Researchers from the University of Maryland and Minnesota came back with an intriguing and politically advantageous answer: Income inequality. They warned that an “unequal distribution of wealth” has “led to civilizational collapse.”

15. Funding Kids Dressing Like Fruits and Vegetables: $5 million
Another wasteful project also caught by CNSNews.com. The University of Tennessee used $5 million of taxpayer money allowing student to dress up like fruits and veggies in an attempt to promote healthy eating habits. “Students created the term ‘fruved’ to describe ‘the process of eating FRUits and VEgetables.’”
“The students are divided into five teams – amusingly labeled Spinach, Carrot, Banana, Grapes, and Tomato – which are led by costumed mascots.”

16. Help Parents Counter Kids’ Refusals to Eat Fruits and Veggies: $804,254
In an attempt to aid parents across America whose kids have refused to eat their greens, the NIH has funded a Smartphone game called “Kiddio: Food Fight.” The game is supposed to help parents counter sophisticated childhood rebuttals like “Yuk!”

“Parents will select a vegetable to offer Kiddio and then select a tactic for influencing Kiddio to eat the veggie.”

17. Lost electronic devices from NASA: $1.1 million
It seems thousands of agency provided electronics are lost in space. NASA hasn't kept track of the thousands of Smartphones, tablets, and AirCards they've provided their employees. At the same time, “Over 2,000 devices – 14 percent of the total owned by the agency– went unused for at least 7 months from 2013-2014.” On the agency’s list of lost items, they've listed “laptops, video tapes, and moon rocks.”

18. Studying if Wikipedia is Sexist: $202,000
The NSF sent nearly a quarter of a million dollars to NYU and Yale researchers to study if any gender bias existed on the website Wikipedia. Because Wikipedia can be edited by almost anyone, the study followed “accusations of sexism in content and among contributors at Wikipedia.” One example of sexism uncovered by researchers was quite the bombshell:

Wikipedia contributors were biased because they had characterized some female novelists as “American Female Novelists” on Wikipedia, rather than “American Novelists.”

19. Asking heavy drinkers not to drink through text message: $194,090
Researchers plan to use this swath of taxpayer money to conduct a study wherein they text “heavy drinkers,” warn them not to drink, and monitor whether they do in fact get drunk.

“For example, some study subjects will get a daily 3 P.M. text message reminding them of the consequences of heavy drinking.”

20. Government Funded Ice Cream: $1.2 million
The USDA is paying dairy farmers to produce ice cream and many other dairy confections:

“In Wisconsin and New York, a farmer cooperative and creamery received a grant to expand production and marketing of organic Greek yogurt. A Missourifarm will be using a grant it received also to produce yogurt, but from sheep’s milk. A farm in Pennsylvania received a grant as well to expand its yogurt business but will use some of the money to build its Mexican chocolate business.”

Top 20 Worst Ways the Government Wasted Your Tax Dollars

 

[P@triot]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Spaceport to Nowhere. The Missile Defense Agency continues to fund a rocket launch site in Alaska that could cost the organization up to $80.4 million. The facility is 20 years old, “rarely used,” and was established with an $18 million earmark. “The millions spent to date on this launch complex have not made America safer from potential missile attacks from foreign adversaries,” the report states. “To the contrary, it has siphoned away tens of millions of dollars that could have been better spent on more promising initiatives.”

2. Fishes on a Treadmill. How long can a mudskipper use a treadmill? The University of California-San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is using grant money from the National Science Foundation to answer just that. The study found that mudskippers “can exercise longer and recover quicker under higher oxygen concentrations.” The grant also is slated to be used “to purchase what one of the researchers jokingly refers to as ‘all the toys’ as well as travel costs for junkets to conferences.”

3. Holograms at a Comedy Museum. The National Comedy Center, a nonprofit in New York, received a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to create a comedy museum. The museum will feature holograms of dead comedians. A New York state lawmaker has promised to bring an additional $3 million in federal funding. “I’m not kidding you,” Flake said at Heritage. “It’s a comedy club that, unfortunately, gets your tax dollars.”

4. Partying College Students. Part of a $5 million grant from a section of the National Institutes of Health paid for a researcher at Brown University to study the partying habits of college students. Some findings: “Greek members engaged in more risky health behaviors … than non-Greek members,” and college students tend to increase their intake of alcohol on game days. “According to the researchers,” Flake said, “all the games had the same goal—causing the participants to become intoxicated. I think that falls into the obvious category.”

5. Do Boys or Girls Play More With Dolls? A study executed by Vanderbilt University with money from the National Eye Institute and National Science Foundation examined “whether boys or girls spend more time playing with Barbie dolls.” The report surveyed about 300 men and women and cost over $300,000. The study also found, in the words of Flake’s report, that “women were much better at identifying the correct Barbies while the men were more likely to recognize the Transformers.”

6. Singing Dinosaurs. A study conducted with partial funding from $450,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation examined whether dinosaurs were able to sing. The two-year study examined, in part, whether dinosaurs ever possessed a syrinx. The lead author said the study was “another important step to figuring out what dinosaurs sounded like.”

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

7 Ways the Government Wastes Your Tax Dollars

Fake News

Bwahahaha! Is that the best you can do buttercup? Denying reality again?

 

[Winston]

And no, the government is not getting more money for doing less work, or the same work. That money will be spent. It will be invested, not saved.

Oh...you mean "invested" like this? Sorry - but what you falsely call "investing", rational, reasonable people call wasting. But either way - I don't want the government investing or wasting my money. They are not supposed to be doing either.

1. Spaceport to Nowhere. The Missile Defense Agency continues to fund a rocket launch site in Alaska that could cost the organization up to $80.4 million. The facility is 20 years old, “rarely used,” and was established with an $18 million earmark. “The millions spent to date on this launch complex have not made America safer from potential missile attacks from foreign adversaries,” the report states. “To the contrary, it has siphoned away tens of millions of dollars that could have been better spent on more promising initiatives.”

2. Fishes on a Treadmill. How long can a mudskipper use a treadmill? The University of California-San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography is using grant money from the National Science Foundation to answer just that. The study found that mudskippers “can exercise longer and recover quicker under higher oxygen concentrations.” The grant also is slated to be used “to purchase what one of the researchers jokingly refers to as ‘all the toys’ as well as travel costs for junkets to conferences.”

3. Holograms at a Comedy Museum. The National Comedy Center, a nonprofit in New York, received a $1.7 million grant from the Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration to create a comedy museum. The museum will feature holograms of dead comedians. A New York state lawmaker has promised to bring an additional $3 million in federal funding. “I’m not kidding you,” Flake said at Heritage. “It’s a comedy club that, unfortunately, gets your tax dollars.”

4. Partying College Students. Part of a $5 million grant from a section of the National Institutes of Health paid for a researcher at Brown University to study the partying habits of college students. Some findings: “Greek members engaged in more risky health behaviors … than non-Greek members,” and college students tend to increase their intake of alcohol on game days. “According to the researchers,” Flake said, “all the games had the same goal—causing the participants to become intoxicated. I think that falls into the obvious category.”

5. Do Boys or Girls Play More With Dolls? A study executed by Vanderbilt University with money from the National Eye Institute and National Science Foundation examined “whether boys or girls spend more time playing with Barbie dolls.” The report surveyed about 300 men and women and cost over $300,000. The study also found, in the words of Flake’s report, that “women were much better at identifying the correct Barbies while the men were more likely to recognize the Transformers.”

6. Singing Dinosaurs. A study conducted with partial funding from $450,000 in grants from the National Science Foundation examined whether dinosaurs were able to sing. The two-year study examined, in part, whether dinosaurs ever possessed a syrinx. The lead author said the study was “another important step to figuring out what dinosaurs sounded like.”

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

7 Ways the Government Wastes Your Tax Dollars

Fake News

Bwahahaha! Is that the best you can do buttercup? Denying reality again?

Every single program you posted involved the government SPENDING money. They took those tax dollars and put them back into the economy. Those dollars will expand the economy, even if they are spent researching how fast shrimp run.

Contrast that with "saving", which is what business owners like myself are most likely to do with any tax savings we may be granted. Saved money is deposited somewhere to draw RENTS from the economy. Savings are not investments, they are a DRAG on the economy.

It is basic Econ. Keynesian. We need spending to drive this economy, not saving. We need to stimulate investment, not rent seeking. The government SPENDS money, in today's economy, businesses and business owners SEEK RENTS.

 

[P@triot]

It is basic Econ. Keynesian. We need spending to drive this economy, not saving. We need to stimulate investment, not rent seeking. The government SPENDS money, in today's economy, businesses and business owners SEEK RENTS.

Exactly. It is failed Keynesian economics. You just proved the entire premise of this thread.

If you're idiotic economic policies worked - we could easily create 0% unemployment by paying everyone to dig a hole in their backyard on one day and fill it in the next. That's not how wealth is generated chief and it is not how economies thrive.

The "savings" that you keep whining about (which is largely a false narrative anyway) is what allows banks to make loans. Loans for businesses. Loans for homes. Loans for education. And it's what allows the banks to generate revenue - by the interests on the loans.

 

[P@triot]

We need spending to drive this economy, not saving.

1. So spend. Spent your money. Stop being a failed little fascist demanding everyone else spend recklessly like you desire.

2. Spending doesn't drive an economy. You need a basic economics class. Innovation drives an economy. Efficiencies drive an economy. Demand drives an economy. Production drives an economy.

3. Even if you were correct (and you're absolutely not) - it doesn't matter anyway. It's not the government's job to drive an economy and it is 100% unconstitutional (illegal) anyway. You lose on all accounts.

 

[Winston]

We need spending to drive this economy, not saving.

1. So spend. Spent your money. Stop being a failed little fascist demanding everyone else spend recklessly like you desire.

2. Spending doesn't drive an economy. You need a basic economics class. Innovation drives an economy. Efficiencies drive an economy. Demand drives an economy. Production drives an economy.

3. Even if you were correct (and you're absolutely not) - it doesn't matter anyway. It's not the government's job to drive an economy and it is 100% unconstitutional (illegal) anyway. You lose on all accounts.

Look. I am going to make this simple. I swear they ought to make Goldilocks and the Three Bears required reading every damn year.

Sometimes, well the economy needs savings. I don't mean investment, there is a difference that I will be happy to explain. But, when an economy is running hot, near full employment, inflation rearing it's head, you need savings to slow it down a little. Hell, it is the very reason that interest rates go up during this time period. In effect, when spending is going too fast dollars are in high demand, and they are chasing too few goods, which gives us the inflation.

But sometimes, the economy needs spending. Like when the economy is plodding along with little or no growth, when unemployment is high, when inflation is practically non-existent and dollars are stacked up everywhere making next to nothing, well we need some spending. In other words, like NOW.

And I don't no where the hell you are getting this constitutional argument. It's foolish. The government does have some constitutional responsibilities. To fulfill those duties it has to have revenue. The Constitution gives the government the authority to initiate and raise taxes for that purpose. It also gives them the authority to allocate funds to fulfill those constitutional duties.

Now, it behooves the government to both attain those revenues and disperse that spending in the most efficient manner possible and that includes understanding the Macroeconomic impact of those policies. In fact, one could argue that the primary responsibility of the government is to maintain the very apparatus that supplies it's funding at optimal operating condition. That is the economy. Everything else, from national defense to crime rates, depend upon it.

 

[danielpalos]

No shit. Wanting something for nothing. That is what tax cuts do.

That literally may be the dumbest comment ever made. Ever. Seriously. "Wanting something for nothing"?!? What do they want? To be able to keep more of their money? The money they earned? Gasp! Oh the horrors.

I love how your lazy, greedy, little socialist ass thinks that you are entitled to their money and damn them for trying to keep what already belongs to them. Idiot.

What makes that comment extra special stupid is that the article wasn't even about taxes. It was about minimum wage. Clearly you're illiterate.

you could get richer faster, if you did all the work yourself, and didn't hire anyone.

 

[P@triot]

No shit. Wanting something for nothing. That is what tax cuts do.

That literally may be the dumbest comment ever made. Ever. Seriously. "Wanting something for nothing"?!? What do they want? To be able to keep more of their money? The money they earned? Gasp! Oh the horrors.

I love how your lazy, greedy, little socialist ass thinks that you are entitled to their money and damn them for trying to keep what already belongs to them. Idiot.

What makes that comment extra special stupid is that the article wasn't even about taxes. It was about minimum wage. Clearly you're illiterate.

you could get richer faster, if you did all the work yourself, and didn't hire anyone.

Not even remotely true. I'm always amazed at how progressives are so ignorant of even basic business.

 

[danielpalos]

No shit. Wanting something for nothing. That is what tax cuts do.

That literally may be the dumbest comment ever made. Ever. Seriously. "Wanting something for nothing"?!? What do they want? To be able to keep more of their money? The money they earned? Gasp! Oh the horrors.

I love how your lazy, greedy, little socialist ass thinks that you are entitled to their money and damn them for trying to keep what already belongs to them. Idiot.

What makes that comment extra special stupid is that the article wasn't even about taxes. It was about minimum wage. Clearly you're illiterate.

you could get richer faster, if you did all the work yourself, and didn't hire anyone.

Not even remotely true. I'm always amazed at how progressives are so ignorant of even basic business.

why not? it is simple math, isn't it? reduce labor costs to maximize profits. don't be lazy.

 

[P@triot]

you could get richer faster, if you did all the work yourself, and didn't hire anyone.

Not even remotely true. I'm always amazed at how progressives are so ignorant of even basic business.

why not? it is simple math, isn't it? reduce labor costs to maximize profits. don't be lazy.

Well now you're contradicting yourself! First you said eliminate labor. Now you're saying "reduce labor costs". If you never hired anyone - you have no labor costs. How can you reduce what you don't have?

 

[danielpalos]

you could get richer faster, if you did all the work yourself, and didn't hire anyone.

Not even remotely true. I'm always amazed at how progressives are so ignorant of even basic business.

why not? it is simple math, isn't it? reduce labor costs to maximize profits. don't be lazy.

Well now you're contradicting yourself! First you said eliminate labor. Now you're saying "reduce labor costs". If you never hired anyone - you have no labor costs. How can you reduce what you don't have?

reducing labor reduces labor costs. is the national socialist right wing, always so, disingenuous.

 

[P@triot]

reducing labor reduces labor costs. is the national socialist right wing, always so, disingenuous.

Yes folks...progressives really are this stupid. Socialism is the polar opposite of "right-wing". But - blaming the right for their own sins is what fascists do best.

 

[JoeNormal]

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

There are some criticism-worthy examples on your list but this isn't one of them. This is how deep learning neural networks are trained and why people who aren't creative or exceptionally technically savvy are in danger of losing their livelihoods. From all outward signs, this includes you.

 

[P@triot]

7. Binge-Watching Computers. Can computers learn human behavior by binge-watching TV shows such as “The Office” and “Desperate Housewives?” The study was funded in part by the Department of Defense’s Office of Naval Research and the National Science Foundation, which helped researchers study how TV shows “train computers to understand and predict human behavior.” Flake said he sees this research as nonsensical. “Spending nearly a half a billion dollars to … turn computers into couch potatoes doesn’t compute for me,” he said.

There are some criticism-worthy examples on your list but this isn't one of them. This is how deep learning neural networks are trained and why people who aren't creative or exceptionally technically savvy are in danger of losing their livelihoods. From all outward signs, this includes you.

It's not the government's job to "train" them, nitwit. Try reading the U.S. Constitution and then get back to me...k? From all outward signs, you're as ignorant about your own government as you are technology. Scary.