5 ms·

I wonder if the lack of concern is because of the future of autonomous warfare. There's drones of course, but also tech that enables things like aircraft carri

I wonder if the lack of concern is because of the future of autonomous warfare. There's drones of course, but also tech that enables things like aircraft carriers to run with much fewer crew. I'm betting that national healthcare will cause a fitness boom. We'll start seeing each other's poor health as tax money, and there will be more stigma for being overweight.

kbutler 6y ago
The covid relief plan would prove a definitive counter to your hypothetical concern over tax money.
- kbutler 6y ago
  The public clamor for “$2k” checks, which comprise less than 1/4 of the $1.9 trillion dollar package that’s now entering reconciliation proves pretty strongly that the public is not sensitive to the cost of their government “benefits”. The Democratic Party has never been particularly concerned about taxes and debt. The Republican Party is periodically concerned about it, but mostly when they don’t control the government. I used to think Democrats would tax and spend, and republicans would borrow and spend. It looks like both will now print money (expand the money supply) and spend. The next few years will be an interesting test of “Modern Monetary Theory”.
  - blacksqr 6y ago
    Clinton and Obama were the only presidents to lower the deficit in the last 50 years. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/12/31/fact-check-meme-lacks-context-clinton-obama-federal-deficit/6464069002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/12/31/fac...
    - kbutler 6y ago
      Who controls spending? Especially on transfer programs, which represent the bulk of the deficit? (It’s not the president) http://goliards.us/adelphi/deficits/index.html http://goliards.us/adelphi/deficits/index.html is more useful. It shows party control of the presidency, house, and senate and deficits each year, not just at end of term. Looks like the ideal for deficit control is to have a democratic president and republican control of both houses of Congress. Unified government by either party leads to less constraint on spending.
      - blacksqr 6y ago
        If Democrats make up half the team that you claim is most effective at limiting deficits, it would seem to me to be difficult to sustain the argument that Democrats don't care about them.
        kbutler 6y ago
        Look at the data on deficits linked above. This seems to be the pattern: Republican president: spend on this! Republican congress: OK Democratic congress: OK, as long as we spend on this, too. Democratic president: spend on this! Democratic congress: OK Republican congress: No, deficits are important.
    - aksss 6y ago
      Yeah, but that happened with the other party controlling the purse strings, in both cases, who were voted in as a reaction to those administrations with financial mandates.
      - blacksqr 6y ago
        Both Clinton and Obama inherited a recession from their Republican predecessors, and were punished for the unforgivable sin of responding appropriately.
        aksss 6y ago
        By that logic did Bush inherit the dot-com crash from Clinton? I think you'd like to make the world fit neatly into ideological views. The boom-bust cycle of the US economy is pretty nuts when you step back and take it all in. Often the federal policies and bank regulations, to the extent they drive 'irrational exuberance', seldom reach their zenith and nadir all within one administration. The subprime mortgage crisis being a good example.
        blacksqr 6y ago
        If you don't think it's possible to make the world fit neatly into ideological views, then I don't understand your former comment where you appear to give credit for the deficit reduction under Clinton and Obama to the Republicans.
        aksss 6y ago
        Of course you don’t.
MattGaiser 6y ago
> I'm betting that national healthcare will cause a fitness boom. We'll start seeing each other's poor health as tax money, and there will be more stigma for being overweight. Don't see this in Canada, where tax dollars pay for it. Stigma only works if there is a majority against a minority. Most people are fat.
astrange 6y ago
My understanding is that a lot of people who join the military now come from military families, so they're kind of already prepared for it. (This is different from AOC's claim which is the military preys on poor students and gamers.) If you're going in just as a drone pilot, the fitness standards wouldn't be needed for anything, so presumably they expect people to still be doing something up close and physical though?
nradov 6y ago
Running ships with much fewer crew is fine until something breaks and needs to be repaired. The Navy tried that for a while with the LCS and it didn't work.

kbutler 6y ago

The covid relief plan would prove a definitive counter to your hypothetical concern over tax money.

kbutler 6y ago
The public clamor for “$2k” checks, which comprise less than 1/4 of the $1.9 trillion dollar package that’s now entering reconciliation proves pretty strongly that the public is not sensitive to the cost of their government “benefits”. The Democratic Party has never been particularly concerned about taxes and debt. The Republican Party is periodically concerned about it, but mostly when they don’t control the government. I used to think Democrats would tax and spend, and republicans would borrow and spend. It looks like both will now print money (expand the money supply) and spend. The next few years will be an interesting test of “Modern Monetary Theory”.
- blacksqr 6y ago
  Clinton and Obama were the only presidents to lower the deficit in the last 50 years. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/12/31/fact-check-meme-lacks-context-clinton-obama-federal-deficit/6464069002/ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/12/31/fac...
  - kbutler 6y ago
    Who controls spending? Especially on transfer programs, which represent the bulk of the deficit? (It’s not the president) http://goliards.us/adelphi/deficits/index.html http://goliards.us/adelphi/deficits/index.html is more useful. It shows party control of the presidency, house, and senate and deficits each year, not just at end of term. Looks like the ideal for deficit control is to have a democratic president and republican control of both houses of Congress. Unified government by either party leads to less constraint on spending.
    - blacksqr 6y ago
      If Democrats make up half the team that you claim is most effective at limiting deficits, it would seem to me to be difficult to sustain the argument that Democrats don't care about them.
      - kbutler 6y ago
        Look at the data on deficits linked above. This seems to be the pattern: Republican president: spend on this! Republican congress: OK Democratic congress: OK, as long as we spend on this, too. Democratic president: spend on this! Democratic congress: OK Republican congress: No, deficits are important.
  - aksss 6y ago
    Yeah, but that happened with the other party controlling the purse strings, in both cases, who were voted in as a reaction to those administrations with financial mandates.
    - blacksqr 6y ago
      Both Clinton and Obama inherited a recession from their Republican predecessors, and were punished for the unforgivable sin of responding appropriately.
      - aksss 6y ago
        By that logic did Bush inherit the dot-com crash from Clinton? I think you'd like to make the world fit neatly into ideological views. The boom-bust cycle of the US economy is pretty nuts when you step back and take it all in. Often the federal policies and bank regulations, to the extent they drive 'irrational exuberance', seldom reach their zenith and nadir all within one administration. The subprime mortgage crisis being a good example.
        blacksqr 6y ago
        If you don't think it's possible to make the world fit neatly into ideological views, then I don't understand your former comment where you appear to give credit for the deficit reduction under Clinton and Obama to the Republicans.
        aksss 6y ago
        Of course you don’t.

MattGaiser 6y ago

> I'm betting that national healthcare will cause a fitness boom. We'll start seeing each other's poor health as tax money, and there will be more stigma for being overweight. Don't see this in Canada, where tax dollars pay for it. Stigma only works if there is a majority against a minority. Most people are fat.

astrange 6y ago

My understanding is that a lot of people who join the military now come from military families, so they're kind of already prepared for it. (This is different from AOC's claim which is the military preys on poor students and gamers.) If you're going in just as a drone pilot, the fitness standards wouldn't be needed for anything, so presumably they expect people to still be doing something up close and physical though?

nradov 6y ago

Running ships with much fewer crew is fine until something breaks and needs to be repaired. The Navy tried that for a while with the LCS and it didn't work.