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> The military is considered one of the competent parts of the US government and the amount of waste is staggering. This is not universally agreed upon. Milita
by LapsangGuzzler 3y ago
> The military is considered one of the competent parts of the US government and the amount of waste is staggering.
This is not universally agreed upon. Military spending has been a deeply controversial topic along political lines given its overall amount and lack of transparency.
As far as examples of competent spending goes, there are plenty but they tend not to get as much attention as the failures do. A big example that most aren’t aware of are the government backed small business loans granted by SBA. Clean energy subsidies are another (Tesla was originally capitalized by a government clean energy grant).
You might not have known that about Tesla, but you’re more likely to have heard about Solyndra, which was funded by the same initiative and tarred in the press as an example of wasteful spending. US gov stimulates a ton of business investment behind the scenes that often goes unnoticed.
- seanp2k2 3y agoSoooo, yet more rich folks using government money to grow their own riches?
- LapsangGuzzler 3y agoIf you want to be overly reductionist about it, that’s up to you. The reality that there’s never been a time in human history where this hasn’t been true. Why make perfect the enemy of good? Lots of rich people exploited PPP during the pandemic, does that mean the government shouldn’t ever hand out life-saving subsidies like that?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- AlbertCory 3y ago> tarred in the press as an example of wasteful spending umm... they WERE wasteful spending, in that they went bankrupt. You can drive past that building on the 880 freeway.
- LapsangGuzzler 3y agoRight, but you only ever hear about the stories of waste, not the stories of success, because talking about the success of government business loans is one of the driest and most dull topics out there. Press doesn’t like to cover it because it’s so boring. I mean, a marginal percentage of people participate in local government meetings because of this reason. It’s so boring to listen to meetings about housing and infrastructure policy, even though they’re vital to the community. If you want to read about government success stories, you have to seek them out.
- AlbertCory 3y agoSo you've changed your topic now. First you said they were "tarred" as if that was false.