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Because you’d rather have wasteful spending than moderately productive spending...? Seems like you want the government to waste money just so you can say “I to
by ImprovedSilence 7y ago
Because you’d rather have wasteful spending than moderately productive spending...? Seems like you want the government to waste money just so you can say “I told you so”.
Like it or not, defense spending is a huge boost to the middle class stem job market, and taking it out would have consequences wider ranging than you think. With “white collar welfare” I’d argue the gov gets a better return on its investment than most other options, while arguably making it harder for developing nations to become a threat via brain drain because the stem market is strong here.
- philwelch 7y agoAs you may remember from the Project Maven controversy, there are a lot of people on HN and in the tech community who are fundamentally opposed to the US military being more effective at carrying out its missions.
- ethbro 7y agoThere are also a lot of people who support military effectiveness and efficiency. And even more who remember where Silicon Valley's initial contracts came from...
- geofft 7y agoYes, precisely—wasteful defense spending accomplishes the goal of supporting the middle class with jobs while failing at the goal of killing people. It's not an "I told you so" thing. I'm genuinely fine with massive taxpayer-supported boondoggles that create jobs in the long term. My objection to defense spending is that it kills people, not that it takes money from my paycheck to create more paychecks.
- jakelazaroff 7y agoWhy are you okay with taxpayer-supported boondoggles that create jobs? Just cut out the middleman and redistribute the money directly.
- geofft 7y agoI support that too, but that seems less politically feasible, and it has largely the same effect.