Why do we have non-essential gov't workers?

[Adam Jensen]

Because for the 40 millionth time. Knowing what is in space serves no purpose other than to amaze curious people and show off our tech. Anything NASA developed to explore space wouldve eventually be invented at some point by private companies, or we couldve gotten by without. Believe it or not, 150 years ago people made it just fine without even having electricity.

Thing is Orlong, some people don't want to live 150 years ago. They want to live in the future, which means people have to innovate, which means people have to invest, which means that people have to *gasp* spend money,

[Theinquisition]

Depends which animal you used. Dog? Probably fine. Monkey? Oh dear.

What about a Donkey...kinda a mix of the two.

[Gemini Sunrise]

What about a Donkey...kinda a mix of the two.

Well, yeah, I mean, he is technically one if you want to go Andrew Jackson on the situation.

[Kellhound]

Well, to be clear, I don't think they should get everything they ask for, just that it would make more sense if requests originated with the people that will actually use the hardware. Send it to review after.

It was a jab at the AF because they like shiny sexy fighters, they drop bombs because the are ordered to, not because they want to... (Which is why they are always trying to get rid of the A-10)

[Spectral]

What about a Donkey...kinda a mix of the two.

Same family as Kirk Cameron's Crocoduck, I believe (a crocoduck!).

[Crissi]

What about a Donkey...kinda a mix of the two.

That's already been done, since its the democrats mascot

[Kellhound]

You're talking about posturing against China. I'm talking about the actual conflicts we're always involved with in third-world countries for the last 70 years. (some of those are posturing, too)

60 years ago we where fighting China....

[Wells]

Well we're in the process of doing that, for better or for worse.

Thing is, we did that before during the 90's than come the early 2000's we were scrambling to train and equip personal.

Its cheaper to maintain what you have as opposed to having to re-invent the wheel every 5-10 years.

Or maybe just don't invade Iraq.

[ishootblanks]

who are you to say what is essential or not?

a taxpayer and voter

[Mormolyce]

Its getting harder and costlier to do that though. Cheaper long term to maintain a larger force.

Or reduce the size of the military and stop getting into military quagmires.

Hard to believe anything is more expensive than the $1.5 trillion we flushed down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[Theinquisition]

Or maybe just don't invade Iraq.

Think I enjoyed the Forays into that shithole Wells?

We don't get to pick and choose our conflicts as service-members. Be pissed at our politicians.

[Kellhound]

Or maybe just don't invade Iraq.

Maybe a good idea, maybe not. Hard to say at this point.

[Theinquisition]

It was a jab at the AF because they like shiny sexy fighters, they drop bombs because the are ordered to, not because they want to... (Which is why they are always trying to get rid of the A-10)

Dude......I wish the AF would give us the A-10 back. I would be more than happy to work on those!!!!

If I was staying in anyway...

[Wells]

Think I enjoyed the Forays into that shithole Wells?

We don't get to pick and choose our conflicts as service-members. Be pissed at our politicians.

You missed the point pretty badly there dude.

It was only a scramble to retrain and reequip because we invaded Iraq for no god damn reason.

[Spectral]

Maybe a good idea, maybe not. Hard to say at this point.

Seems pretty easy to say, given the cost. There's no conceivable way that it was worth the money. Hell, Iraq isn't worth trillions even if we literally owned it.

[Rajadog20]

With the government shutdown now in 'full effect,' it begs the question (from an economic standpoint, if nothing else) as to why we have so many 'non-essential' government workers. Logically, it would seem that if someone's job is not important, then there really is no need to keep paying that individual to perform a job that is not needed. With over 800,000 of our government employees now deemed non-essential by their very own employer, shouldn't the American people be looking for a much better return on their investment than simply continuing to pay billions of dollars each year to those who are 'essentially' not important?



cnn.com/2013/10/01/politics/government-shutdown/

I agree with you 100%. The simple reason is Socialism.

A pure capitalistic system only has the necessary parts, basically the military and a governing body. Anything else isn't essential and you are fooling yourself if you think welfare and state run museums are essential. People lived fine without government, and in most cases, better. Look at Hong Kong as an example. There are less people in poverty there than there are in america because it is easier to start a business due to lack of regulation. They are also motivated because they know they wont get paid for not working.

As we move towards socialism (you can't deny it, we have over the past 100 years), the government expands and adds a lot of unessential positions. The closer you get to a command system, the more government grows. We are not a capitalist country, and haven't been for a while. We have a ton of government regulations and intervention. We are a mixed economy, moving closer to socialism than capitalism, hence the reason we have such a large, mostly unessential government.

[Kellhound]

Or reduce the size of the military and stop getting into military quagmires.

Hard to believe anything is more expensive than the $1.5 trillion we flushed down the toilet in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Reducing it can bring worse quagmires, and the issues that followed the successful invasions of both Iraq and Afghanistan had far more to do with not spending enough money in those countries than anything else.

[ishootblanks]

You missed the point pretty badly there dude.

It was only a scramble to retrain and reequip because we invaded Iraq for no god damn reason.

yes.. threatening to cause great harm to the USA after proving repeatedly that you're even willing to use WMD's against your own people is no God damned reason..

and 9/11 only happened because of the USA interfering in the middle east too right?

[Rajadog20]

You missed the point pretty badly there dude.

It was only a scramble to retrain and reequip because we invaded Iraq for no god damn reason.

Hmmm, is going after the guys who killed 3,000 innocent people and were terrorizing the country they occupied not good enough for you? K...

I lost hope for you wells. The world really isn't how it seems from your basement.


[Infracted]

[Wells]

I find it incredibly depressing that anyone outside the Bush administration is still defending that war.