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"Although the FAA is responsible for the safety of any airplane manufactured in the United States, it delegates much of the certification to the manufacturers t

"Although the FAA is responsible for the safety of any airplane manufactured in the United States, it delegates much of the certification to the manufacturers themselves. It has to in order to get anything certified at all, says Jon Ostrower, editor-in-chief of The Air Current and a former aviation reporter for The Wall Street Journal. Boeing already has the people and the expertise, it pays better, and it isn’t susceptible to government shutdowns. The FAA, meanwhile, says it would need 10,000 more employees and an additional $1.8 billion of taxpayer money each year to bring certification entirely in-house." I wonder if therein lies the solution. Allocation of some of the budget there instead of military perhaps? Not to mention the policy paralysis leading up to stupid government shutdowns putting people at risk.

Apes 7y ago
Why from the military specifically? There are other budget items where we spend more.
- swarnie_ 7y ago
  I just looked up the 2018 federal budget for examples: Department of Defense : $574 billion Department of Veteran Affairs :$78.9 billion Department of Education : $68.2 billion Department of Health and Human Services :$65.1 billion Environmental Protection Agency: $5.7 billion Does this not seem off to you?
  - dandare 7y ago
    In perspective: https://us.wikibudgets.org/w/united-states-budget-2016 https://us.wikibudgets.org/w/united-states-budget-2016
  - Apes 7y ago
    The things you've listed are only around 25% of the budget. You're engaged in some serious cherry picking.
    - swarnie_ 7y ago
      I didn't want to format the entire list, sorry.
  - Apes 7y ago
    Here's some things you "overlooked" Mandatory spending: $2.841 trillion (this includes the following) Social Security: $1.102 trillion Medicare: $679 billion Medicaid: $418 billion The military budget isn't a whipping boy to just cut into every time you need money for something else. It's a priority for a lot of people in the US, whether you agree with them or not. If something like increasing the FAA budget is actually important, the metric to go by should be, "am I willing to cut social security and healthcare to pay for this?" Because that's what the government is actually spending money on, and that's where it would have to come from.
    - kevin_b_er 7y ago
      The US military budget is consistently called out because the United States spends more on it than all other countries in the entire world, combined. Those you list are less called out because the they're supposed to be directly funded by line item taxes. There's an explicit social security and medicare tax. Serving the people does not have to cost service to the people. Serving the people does not have to be a zero sum game, when we could instead take from the excesses of violence against others to serve the people.
      - Apes 7y ago
        While the US does spend a lot, it does not spend more than "all other countries in the entire world, combined." Total reported military spending is $1.8 trillion, with the understanding that there are some countries (China) that are very likely massively under reporting their military expenditures. Looking at the raw numbers is ingenuous as well. As a percentage of GDP or government spending, the US doesn't even break the top 15 in the world on military spending. Also, the US spends more on healthcare and social security than any other country. Why are you giving those careful white glove treatment?
        craftyguy 7y ago
        > Also, the US spends more on healthcare and social security than any other country. Why are you giving those careful white glove treatment? The US is one of the most populous countries with any sort of widespread social welfare program. Those programs scale in cost with population size. There's no reason for military spending to also scale in the same way with population size. You aren't comparing the same things, so stop pretending you are.
Scoundreller 7y ago
How many employees and dollars would Boeing be able to save if they could transition the certification resources to the FAA? It would also make it easier for new competitors to enter the market since they would need to build/create one less structure. And it could make flying safer since the regulator would see that Company A does X, and Company B should too. Safe practices shouldn’t be a company secret, they should be viral.
retSava 7y ago
Why not charge those that want to certify something? While this may create bad incentives ("make'em fail so we get a second fee"), I have no doubt this can be designed around with some thought.
- maxxxxx 7y ago
  I think the problem is what to do with these people if there is nothing to certify. Or how to ramp up with when suddenly there is a lot to certify. Companies know what they are planning so they adjust verification headcount early. A government agency won't have that information so capacity planning will be very difficult.

Apes 7y ago

Why from the military specifically? There are other budget items where we spend more.

swarnie_ 7y ago
I just looked up the 2018 federal budget for examples: Department of Defense : $574 billion Department of Veteran Affairs :$78.9 billion Department of Education : $68.2 billion Department of Health and Human Services :$65.1 billion Environmental Protection Agency: $5.7 billion Does this not seem off to you?
- dandare 7y ago
  In perspective: https://us.wikibudgets.org/w/united-states-budget-2016 https://us.wikibudgets.org/w/united-states-budget-2016
- Apes 7y ago
  The things you've listed are only around 25% of the budget. You're engaged in some serious cherry picking.
  - swarnie_ 7y ago
    I didn't want to format the entire list, sorry.
- Apes 7y ago
  Here's some things you "overlooked" Mandatory spending: $2.841 trillion (this includes the following) Social Security: $1.102 trillion Medicare: $679 billion Medicaid: $418 billion The military budget isn't a whipping boy to just cut into every time you need money for something else. It's a priority for a lot of people in the US, whether you agree with them or not. If something like increasing the FAA budget is actually important, the metric to go by should be, "am I willing to cut social security and healthcare to pay for this?" Because that's what the government is actually spending money on, and that's where it would have to come from.
  - kevin_b_er 7y ago
    The US military budget is consistently called out because the United States spends more on it than all other countries in the entire world, combined. Those you list are less called out because the they're supposed to be directly funded by line item taxes. There's an explicit social security and medicare tax. Serving the people does not have to cost service to the people. Serving the people does not have to be a zero sum game, when we could instead take from the excesses of violence against others to serve the people.
    - Apes 7y ago
      While the US does spend a lot, it does not spend more than "all other countries in the entire world, combined." Total reported military spending is $1.8 trillion, with the understanding that there are some countries (China) that are very likely massively under reporting their military expenditures. Looking at the raw numbers is ingenuous as well. As a percentage of GDP or government spending, the US doesn't even break the top 15 in the world on military spending. Also, the US spends more on healthcare and social security than any other country. Why are you giving those careful white glove treatment?
      - craftyguy 7y ago
        > Also, the US spends more on healthcare and social security than any other country. Why are you giving those careful white glove treatment? The US is one of the most populous countries with any sort of widespread social welfare program. Those programs scale in cost with population size. There's no reason for military spending to also scale in the same way with population size. You aren't comparing the same things, so stop pretending you are.

Scoundreller 7y ago

How many employees and dollars would Boeing be able to save if they could transition the certification resources to the FAA? It would also make it easier for new competitors to enter the market since they would need to build/create one less structure. And it could make flying safer since the regulator would see that Company A does X, and Company B should too. Safe practices shouldn’t be a company secret, they should be viral.

retSava 7y ago

Why not charge those that want to certify something? While this may create bad incentives ("make'em fail so we get a second fee"), I have no doubt this can be designed around with some thought.

maxxxxx 7y ago
I think the problem is what to do with these people if there is nothing to certify. Or how to ramp up with when suddenly there is a lot to certify. Companies know what they are planning so they adjust verification headcount early. A government agency won't have that information so capacity planning will be very difficult.