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Spending money collected from people with a higher income/net worth sensibly on people disadvantaged by a system that disadvantaged the lower income/net worth p

Spending money collected from people with a higher income/net worth sensibly on people disadvantaged by a system that disadvantaged the lower income/net worth people by its very existence....that sounds a lot like Socialism. Also yes I agree, safe potable water in the worlds richest country should not be an issue in 2017. I also think that natural monopolies should be heavily state governed if not state owned.

sp332 10y ago
The water supply was state-governed. The Flint City Council voted to approve switching water sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Switching_to_a_new_water_source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Switching_t...
- noir_lord 10y ago
  Yep and that's a problem, I think the solution there is harsher penalties actually enforced, if you need to increase the salary to make people take that job then so be it. Other countries do infrastructure better and have water that is demonstrably better than in a lot of places in the US.
  - virmundi 10y ago
    Please keep in mind that the US water supply naturally has higher concentrations of pollutants than many other countries. We also have a higher population drinking straight from the water table pump. It makes it hard to do a direct comparison since other countries don't have to do as much. https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/trace/pubs/gw_v38n4/ https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/trace/pubs/gw_v38n4/
- mattnewton 10y ago
  I generally agree with gp, but if this had happened and a private company was to blame, you'd bet there would be criminal and civil suits being brought by the government. Perhaps the issue here isn't accountability but ability to do the change properly.
mladenkovacevic 10y ago
Yeah god forbid everyone invests their fair share in building a fairer and better society. Crony capitalism is like a flesh eating disease. It encourages everyone to look solely after their own individual interests. Then once a portion of society is exploited and impoverished by the greedier part of society to the point of becoming a burden on them, the rich want to "cut them off" or let them rot away. The cycle then repeats, until very few are left at the top extremely wealthy and powerful, but with no middle class left to exploit.
- noir_lord 10y ago
  That seems to be the pattern yes, it's not like any of this is new either, political theory and treatises from centuries ago show this recurring cycle of the concentration of power (whether that's direct power, soft power or power via wealth) followed by gross abuses of that power and then systemic change (ranging from chopping the head off the nearest king through to the fall of the soviet union). Not sure what the solution is or that there is any single solution, wealth inequality seems to beget greater wealth inequality.

sp332 10y ago

The water supply was state-governed. The Flint City Council voted to approve switching water sources. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Switching_to_a_new_water_source https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis#Switching_t...

noir_lord 10y ago
Yep and that's a problem, I think the solution there is harsher penalties actually enforced, if you need to increase the salary to make people take that job then so be it. Other countries do infrastructure better and have water that is demonstrably better than in a lot of places in the US.
- virmundi 10y ago
  Please keep in mind that the US water supply naturally has higher concentrations of pollutants than many other countries. We also have a higher population drinking straight from the water table pump. It makes it hard to do a direct comparison since other countries don't have to do as much. https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/trace/pubs/gw_v38n4/ https://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/trace/pubs/gw_v38n4/
mattnewton 10y ago
I generally agree with gp, but if this had happened and a private company was to blame, you'd bet there would be criminal and civil suits being brought by the government. Perhaps the issue here isn't accountability but ability to do the change properly.

mladenkovacevic 10y ago

Yeah god forbid everyone invests their fair share in building a fairer and better society. Crony capitalism is like a flesh eating disease. It encourages everyone to look solely after their own individual interests. Then once a portion of society is exploited and impoverished by the greedier part of society to the point of becoming a burden on them, the rich want to "cut them off" or let them rot away. The cycle then repeats, until very few are left at the top extremely wealthy and powerful, but with no middle class left to exploit.

noir_lord 10y ago
That seems to be the pattern yes, it's not like any of this is new either, political theory and treatises from centuries ago show this recurring cycle of the concentration of power (whether that's direct power, soft power or power via wealth) followed by gross abuses of that power and then systemic change (ranging from chopping the head off the nearest king through to the fall of the soviet union). Not sure what the solution is or that there is any single solution, wealth inequality seems to beget greater wealth inequality.