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Is politics supposed to be about maximizing the government's money? We saw where that lead with businesses. I thought the government was there to do things that

Is politics supposed to be about maximizing the government's money? We saw where that lead with businesses. I thought the government was there to do things that weren't good profit maximizers but made the world better.

logicchains 2y ago
In most western countries there are few state-run enterprises so there's little "government's money". There's taxpayer's money, and they care how it's spent.
- 6510 2y ago
  Every time I think about that it strikes me as a dumb idea. Everything that cant be allowed to fail should be a government enterprise. I would go nuts with the concept, turn city hall into a museum, hotel, grandcafe, restaurant, cinema, casino, conference rooms, desks for rent, city tour guides, etc etc open 24/7. Live music if there are no council meetings on the big screen. It should have a room to smoke weed too. If you ignore how silly it sounds, what do you think the revenue will be like?
  - randallsquared 2y ago
    More and more things will become too important to fail, in this scheme. ;)
    - 6510 2y ago
      Perhaps but we currently err on the other side.
contravariant 2y ago
Politics is supposed to make maximizing money a good idea. All things being equal (which they're not) it would be a bit odd to choose a policy that ends up being more expensive. Either money doesn't work as it should or it's a bad policy. In this case the hidden costs of police and health is a lot higher than the hidden cost in what is effectively a purely administrative change.
spacebanana7 2y ago
A government is a collection of politicians. Those people are power seekers by definition. Almost always, the increasing the size of the budget under their control increases their power.
maxerickson 2y ago
They are saying that a good justification for a UBI would be if it maximized the value obtained with the spending. If $1 spent on basic income were demonstrated to improve society more than $1 of police spending, and so on. It's of course harder to measure value to society than it is to measure profit, but it is reasonable to consider it when looking at policy proposals.

logicchains 2y ago

In most western countries there are few state-run enterprises so there's little "government's money". There's taxpayer's money, and they care how it's spent.

6510 2y ago
Every time I think about that it strikes me as a dumb idea. Everything that cant be allowed to fail should be a government enterprise. I would go nuts with the concept, turn city hall into a museum, hotel, grandcafe, restaurant, cinema, casino, conference rooms, desks for rent, city tour guides, etc etc open 24/7. Live music if there are no council meetings on the big screen. It should have a room to smoke weed too. If you ignore how silly it sounds, what do you think the revenue will be like?
- randallsquared 2y ago
  More and more things will become too important to fail, in this scheme. ;)
  - 6510 2y ago
    Perhaps but we currently err on the other side.

contravariant 2y ago

Politics is supposed to make maximizing money a good idea. All things being equal (which they're not) it would be a bit odd to choose a policy that ends up being more expensive. Either money doesn't work as it should or it's a bad policy. In this case the hidden costs of police and health is a lot higher than the hidden cost in what is effectively a purely administrative change.

spacebanana7 2y ago

A government is a collection of politicians. Those people are power seekers by definition. Almost always, the increasing the size of the budget under their control increases their power.

maxerickson 2y ago

They are saying that a good justification for a UBI would be if it maximized the value obtained with the spending. If $1 spent on basic income were demonstrated to improve society more than $1 of police spending, and so on. It's of course harder to measure value to society than it is to measure profit, but it is reasonable to consider it when looking at policy proposals.