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Originally Posted by SteelyLoins
Points I think can not be seriously argued re the above:
1. It was the urging of our elected officials that created the mad rush to throw money around, not the incompetency of FEMA.
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Probably.
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2. If elected officials did not think they had the right to redistribute wealth, such fiascos would be rare to nonexistent.
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Perhaps, but they do have the right to redistribute wealth.
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3. Whenever a government giveaway program exists, fraud such as this will occur again.
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3a. The extent of the fraud will be repeatedly overstated by ideological opponents of social safety nets.
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I believe the person you are responding to is somewhere between the ages of 20 and 22. It is hard for me to subscribe to his philosophy, i.e. by now, other people's money should have provided much loftier circumstances than he presently enjoys.
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What kind of circumstances do i currently enjoy?
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I realize that my response involves personal information; it will be interesting to see if it is regarded as a personal attack, when the statements you referenced were not.
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It's hard for me to take things personally when you don't even know me.
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Originally Posted by aceventura3
Police funding is mostly local
Library funding is mostly local
Higher Education is mostly State funded, costs are increasing due to waste and ineffeciency.
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All of these things are at least indirectly related to funds handed out by the federal government. Even if they weren't, supply side economics as a philosophy doesn't solely exist on a national scale. It is quite in vogue amongst the local republicans in my state.
Waste and inneficiency certainly do exist. But to look at the way higher education has been funded, at least in my home state, for the past decade and then to claim that costs are increasing due solely to waste and ineffeciency is silly.
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Employment statistics don't take into account people who choose to work in the underground economy, and the statistics are inadequate in measuring people choosing business ownership or becoming independent contractors.
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Suddenly you're more discriminating about the economic information on which you base your decisions. Look, all of the statistics you quoted in the original post have their flaws too. All economic indicators are flawed; none of them give you a complete picture.
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Crime is generally down, it depends on time periods measured. Crime rates are more closely connected to the illegal drug culture not the economy.
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Crime is most definitely not generally down. At least not where i live. Crime rates are more closely connected to the illegal drug culture not the economy? I'd be very be interested to see your methods for quantifying illegal drug culture in terms of its effects on crime.
It isn't the economy directly effecting crime that is the problem in my city. It's the "starve the beast" philosophy, held by SSE proponents among others, that ultimately results in an underfunded police force.