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Assuming you live in the USA, the simple fact, that you can leave your house and have access to a (still) working transportation infrastructure and do not need

by pintxo 7y ago

Assuming you live in the USA, the simple fact, that you can leave your house and have access to a (still) working transportation infrastructure and do not need (I hope) private security to protect your life and property is proof that the Government does something productive for society. I am as off by a lot of recent Government actions and their seeming inability to fix obvious issues. But to argue they to nothing productive for society? That is just plain wrong. Also, I'd like to highlight that millions of citizens are only healthy/alive because of regulations. Are they perfect? Far from it, but can we live without them? No.

JoeAltmaier 7y ago
It's a mixed bag. My daughter-in-law was doing a rotation in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, and the commissioner of police(?) that lived on her block was mugged. She definitely didn't feel safe there, and will not likely accept a residency there because of the security situation. So in Baltimore at least, the local government has fundamentally failed at some of the things mentioned.
- rusk 7y ago
  Baltimore is a funny one, because I was reading about it and it's actually in one of the wealthiest, most educated parts of the US. But the city itself is a dump. What's going on there if you've got all these wealthy, educated people around, and yet the place is a kip. Is everybody just sitting in their gardens in their leafy suburbs while the world around them burns?
- pintxo 7y ago
  Well, obviously this is not a binary situation. There is more than one government, and event within the same government, it's still people governing and people being governed. I am afraid we have to expect some gradient here.
logicchains 7y ago
>Also, I'd like to highlight that millions of citizens are only healthy/alive because of regulations Citation needed? There were practically no regulations a century ago compared to now, and while more people died then, it certainly wasn't millions (unless you're counting something like vaccines as "regulation").
- pintxo 7y ago
  Looking at increased average life expectancy [1], decreased child death rates [2] etc over the last 1-2 millennia, I'd say millions is a very reasonable estimate. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy [2] https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality
- ceejayoz 7y ago
  There are a lot of regulations you'd have to add up, but millions probably isn't an enormous stretch. Crumple zones, seat belts, and air bags save tens of thousands a year (https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-lives https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-lives). The EPA estimates the Clean Air Act alone saved 100k/year. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.h... Lead paint, workplace safety, FDA approval, product recalls, aviation safety... Hell, fighting the tobacco industry is a big regulatory move.

by pintxo 7y ago

JoeAltmaier 7y ago

It's a mixed bag. My daughter-in-law was doing a rotation in Baltimore at Johns Hopkins, and the commissioner of police(?) that lived on her block was mugged. She definitely didn't feel safe there, and will not likely accept a residency there because of the security situation. So in Baltimore at least, the local government has fundamentally failed at some of the things mentioned.

rusk 7y ago
Baltimore is a funny one, because I was reading about it and it's actually in one of the wealthiest, most educated parts of the US. But the city itself is a dump. What's going on there if you've got all these wealthy, educated people around, and yet the place is a kip. Is everybody just sitting in their gardens in their leafy suburbs while the world around them burns?
pintxo 7y ago
Well, obviously this is not a binary situation. There is more than one government, and event within the same government, it's still people governing and people being governed. I am afraid we have to expect some gradient here.

logicchains 7y ago

>Also, I'd like to highlight that millions of citizens are only healthy/alive because of regulations Citation needed? There were practically no regulations a century ago compared to now, and while more people died then, it certainly wasn't millions (unless you're counting something like vaccines as "regulation").

pintxo 7y ago
Looking at increased average life expectancy [1], decreased child death rates [2] etc over the last 1-2 millennia, I'd say millions is a very reasonable estimate. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy [2] https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality
ceejayoz 7y ago
There are a lot of regulations you'd have to add up, but millions probably isn't an enormous stretch. Crumple zones, seat belts, and air bags save tens of thousands a year (https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-lives https://www.nhtsa.gov/seat-belts/seat-belts-save-lives). The EPA estimates the Clean Air Act alone saved 100k/year. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171226105042.h... Lead paint, workplace safety, FDA approval, product recalls, aviation safety... Hell, fighting the tobacco industry is a big regulatory move.