Maggie's Farm

We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.

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Saturday, October 29. 2011

Bumped, if you have the time this weekend - USA, Inc.

This was passed along by a friend.  It's long, but honest.  The breakdown on health is fascinating, putting the onus on misdirected incentives and unhealthy lifestyles.  Clearly these things can only be fixed by an overbearing nanny state.  I'm posting it late because I figure it's useful for insomniacs or data junkies like me.






Posted by Bulldog in Politics at 12:38 | Comments (5) | Trackbacks (0)

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This is a great video! I have a few disagreements. The narrator says we owe something to or forefathers to continue making investments in education, R&D, and infrastructure.

First, I think we could get a lot better education than we get for our money - see private and charter schools. Of course her main point was made about Pell Grants. Anybody think we don't spend enough on college?

Second, she lists some of the benefits of governmental R&D as the light bulb, artificial heart, personal computers, and the Internet. I'm not positive about the artificial heart, but I'm pretty sure that there was essentially no government funding of the light bulb and personal computers. The Internet was developed by a govt. agency - DARPA, but it really flowered when the private sector made it what it is, so most of the advancements in the Internet were much more the result of private R&D.
#1 mudbug on 2011-10-27 09:07 (Reply)
I wasn't going to go crazy over the few things I disagreed on. The gist of the video is tremendous - we have a spending problem, and it's not where people think it is. We have a health problem, and it's not related to spending.

Etc.

I think we can pick nits all day long over anything we want. I have a running discussion with a friend over the funding of roads. I keep pointing out that most infrastructure in the US at least started as private enterprises, but were made into public projects after politicians got their fingers in the pie (Brooklyn Bridge is a classic, but a study of the US Highway System is another).

I don't think we 'owe' our forefathers anything except to remain true to the cause they began. If that cause can be furthered by implementing the programs mentioned, then perhaps the author is correct. However, the question then becomes are these programs better as public or private enterprises?
#1.1 Bulldog on 2011-10-27 09:21 (Reply)
I agree Bulldog on all counts. The complaint I described in my post is pretty much the only one I have and it's minor.

I just finished the entire video and it is a very strong statement of where we are and includes a good way to think about solving our problem. More people should watch this.
#1.1.1 mudbug on 2011-10-27 09:29 (Reply)
—mudbug—Internet usage exploded in the mid 1990s. The worldwide web (www) was created by an Englisman, Tim Berniers-Lee of Cern—the European Physics and Nuclear Center— which he donated to the world. I just happened to read this yesterday.
#2 The Elephant's Child (Link) on 2011-10-30 00:21 (Reply)
The WWW is built on the Internet. The start of what became what we now know as the Internet came in the '70s. In the early '80s, TCP/IP became the transmission protocol for ARPANET (ARPA became DARPA) and that was the next step to world-wide network domination! :-)
#2.1 mudbug on 2011-10-30 12:02 (Reply)

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