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>>The NSA makes military spending look frugal! Amazing too that we can't find money for food assistance (SNAP) to poor people but we can pay NSA agents for foo

>>The NSA makes military spending look frugal! Amazing too that we can't find money for food assistance (SNAP) to poor people but we can pay NSA agents for fools' errands in video games. I'm waiting for the revelation that Gen. Alexander's NSA underwrote "The Mists of Pandaria" with tax dollars.

JoeAltmaier 13y ago
There's got to be a name for when someone complains about a tiny expenditure, and compares it with an unrelated huge societal issue. You can criticize anything this way: we're delivering mail while people starve. We're giving people parking tickets while killer asteroids go undetected.
- hythloday 13y ago
  It is the fallacy of relative privation, or appeal to worse problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation
- Houshalter 13y ago
  Opportunity costs are a real thing. It's a legitimate argument. See using dead children as a unit of currency: http://www.raikoth.net/deadchild.html http://www.raikoth.net/deadchild.html
- mason240 13y ago
  Prime example, I recently had someone on Twitter literally tell me that by supporting NASA I must want children to die. https://twitter.com/NASA_SLS/status/401818661931208704 https://twitter.com/NASA_SLS/status/401818661931208704 "I love space exploration, but the expenditure simply cannot be justified when kids die for lack of clean water" "But as we're discussing children's lives only someone lacking a moral compass would consider it an issue here"
wavefunction 13y ago
I'm not complaining about space exploration expenditures when we still haven't accomplished world peace. I'm complaining about us wasting money on COMPLETE NONSENSE. If you think "investigating" whether Al Quaeda is communicating versus gnomes jumping on top of the auction house is a valuable use of taxpayer resources, why aren't we investigating whether terrorists are using kebab interval-spacing as a communications medium? Funding SNAP will feed my fellow hungry humans. Funding the NSA will... Who knows? We just have to take their lying word for it. Usually I treat posts like yours with a base modicum of respect, but I'd really think twice the next time if I were you.
- DanBC 13y ago
  You appear to have misunderstood the post that you're replying to.
  - devcpp 13y ago
    I doubt it, he replied to himself.
    - wavefunction 13y ago
      I couldn't reply to a post below mine, which is why I replied to my own post.
      - PavlovsCat 13y ago
        The inline "reply" link doesn't show up until a while after a comment has been posted; but you can simply use the permalink for the comment, there you will always find a reply box.
        wavefunction 13y ago
        Cheers!
    - DanBC 13y ago
dharmach 13y ago
The nation does not have money to support public health care but has enough to support public spying.

JoeAltmaier 13y ago

There's got to be a name for when someone complains about a tiny expenditure, and compares it with an unrelated huge societal issue. You can criticize anything this way: we're delivering mail while people starve. We're giving people parking tickets while killer asteroids go undetected.

hythloday 13y ago
It is the fallacy of relative privation, or appeal to worse problems: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallacy_of_relative_privation
Houshalter 13y ago
Opportunity costs are a real thing. It's a legitimate argument. See using dead children as a unit of currency: http://www.raikoth.net/deadchild.html http://www.raikoth.net/deadchild.html
mason240 13y ago
Prime example, I recently had someone on Twitter literally tell me that by supporting NASA I must want children to die. https://twitter.com/NASA_SLS/status/401818661931208704 https://twitter.com/NASA_SLS/status/401818661931208704 "I love space exploration, but the expenditure simply cannot be justified when kids die for lack of clean water" "But as we're discussing children's lives only someone lacking a moral compass would consider it an issue here"

wavefunction 13y ago

I'm not complaining about space exploration expenditures when we still haven't accomplished world peace. I'm complaining about us wasting money on COMPLETE NONSENSE. If you think "investigating" whether Al Quaeda is communicating versus gnomes jumping on top of the auction house is a valuable use of taxpayer resources, why aren't we investigating whether terrorists are using kebab interval-spacing as a communications medium? Funding SNAP will feed my fellow hungry humans. Funding the NSA will... Who knows? We just have to take their lying word for it. Usually I treat posts like yours with a base modicum of respect, but I'd really think twice the next time if I were you.

DanBC 13y ago
You appear to have misunderstood the post that you're replying to.
- devcpp 13y ago
  I doubt it, he replied to himself.
  - wavefunction 13y ago
    I couldn't reply to a post below mine, which is why I replied to my own post.
    - PavlovsCat 13y ago
      The inline "reply" link doesn't show up until a while after a comment has been posted; but you can simply use the permalink for the comment, there you will always find a reply box.
      - wavefunction 13y ago
        Cheers!
  - DanBC 13y ago

dharmach 13y ago

The nation does not have money to support public health care but has enough to support public spying.