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I absolutely think we should do that. The problem is it's extremely hard to quantify that cost/gain, while its extremely easy to quantity the cost/gain of low-i

I absolutely think we should do that. The problem is it's extremely hard to quantify that cost/gain, while its extremely easy to quantity the cost/gain of low-interest loans. Not to say its impossible, or that we shouldn't try--we should. But when you have a bunch of senators arguing, it's easier to point to the easy numbers.

dlp211 6y ago
Why do we need to quantify it?
- panzagl 6y ago
  Because we shouldn't spend tax money on solutions that show no gain or make things worse for the country as a whole.
  - pphysch 6y ago
    Last 75 years of foreign & drug wars: https://i.redd.it/b4rgt6ovw7k31.jpg https://i.redd.it/b4rgt6ovw7k31.jpg
  - quickthrowman 6y ago
    We spend tax money to make the nation worse all the time already, why does it matter now when it’s for helping out poor people?
adamsea 6y ago
Is it really that difficult to quantify or is it that the government doesnt want to do the work of quantifying it? I think you said it yourself with your comment about senators arguing. The root cause is an overall lack of political will, not any technical or logistical impediments in modelling impact.
- thrill 6y ago
  It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. Throwing gobs at cash at a broken system is what keeps Congress employed. If we had an unemployment system that didn't try to use "one size fits all" numbers, required two minutes on your phone to get enrolled, and two minutes on the employers' part to verify your application, then we wouldn't have have need of a significant number of government employees, and Congress's role wouldn't exist to posture about caring, but instead to simply fund a functioning system simply needed cash.
  - adamsea 6y ago
    > It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. The U.S. Census, GAO, and various other bureaucratic organizations (USDR, EPA, etc), all seem to be quite competent when it comes to performing studies and gathering data. So is the IRS, Department of Defense, etc. Of course there are lots of problems, but the U.S. Federal Government has plenty of agencies able to competently perform some sort of study.

dlp211 6y ago

Why do we need to quantify it?

panzagl 6y ago
Because we shouldn't spend tax money on solutions that show no gain or make things worse for the country as a whole.
- pphysch 6y ago
  Last 75 years of foreign & drug wars: https://i.redd.it/b4rgt6ovw7k31.jpg https://i.redd.it/b4rgt6ovw7k31.jpg
- quickthrowman 6y ago
  We spend tax money to make the nation worse all the time already, why does it matter now when it’s for helping out poor people?

adamsea 6y ago

Is it really that difficult to quantify or is it that the government doesnt want to do the work of quantifying it? I think you said it yourself with your comment about senators arguing. The root cause is an overall lack of political will, not any technical or logistical impediments in modelling impact.

thrill 6y ago
It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. Throwing gobs at cash at a broken system is what keeps Congress employed. If we had an unemployment system that didn't try to use "one size fits all" numbers, required two minutes on your phone to get enrolled, and two minutes on the employers' part to verify your application, then we wouldn't have have need of a significant number of government employees, and Congress's role wouldn't exist to posture about caring, but instead to simply fund a functioning system simply needed cash.
- adamsea 6y ago
  > It's less political will than not having simple competence in any arena other than the political that got them there. The U.S. Census, GAO, and various other bureaucratic organizations (USDR, EPA, etc), all seem to be quite competent when it comes to performing studies and gathering data. So is the IRS, Department of Defense, etc. Of course there are lots of problems, but the U.S. Federal Government has plenty of agencies able to competently perform some sort of study.