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

[Thedweller]

Fact still remains that non-essential means "not critically necessary". And in our current state, America needs to stick to "critically necessary", i'm afraid.

You've been fear mongered to more than you realize. America isn't anywhere near as "critical" as you seem to think it is. The deficit isn't anything to laugh at, but it's no where near bad enough to start shutting down all of our "non essential" functions. If you really think we're in such bad shape you've been listening to news sources that keep trying to get you to buy gold because "The end is coming! Money will be worthless!"

[frumper]

right now we have more armed guards posted to keep victors from seeing these monuments then we have park rangers posted on a day they are opened

Yea, some of this is just silly. Why would they shut down websites? It would take more effort to reroute everything than just leave it as is. I understand not updating, but the government is going a bit far to show how much we're going to miss every day the government isn't funded.

[Grizzly Willy]

Yet you are still unable to point to an instance where I claimed a widely held belief makes something a reality,or for that matter, absolutely true. If the belief of a vast majority of people did not lend credence to a particular argument, then polling would have ceased to exist almost as soon as it started. If I have been definitively proven wrong "about 5 times now," as you say, then point to a single instance where I have equated popular opinion to being fact.

Would cigarettes be more likely to be good for you if a majority of individuals believed them to be? Is evolution less credible, simply because a majority denies it?

It's not that you're arguing your position as fact, it's that you're arguing your position as being more legitimate simply because of a majority opinion.

Polling works to help predict public actions as well. Proper polling during the last election, for example, was used to predict the winner. Some polls were more accurate than others. The polls didn't operate to provide legitimacy to the arguments being made by the politicians, but to gauge public opinion and predict election results. That is the function of polling: to predict actions and gauge public opinion. At no point are they made to provide legitimacy to an argument.

[MatadorMedia]

Where do you work at? Old Navy? That shit is non-essential. So is pretty much every business ever.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Whether you like it or not the fact of the matter is that if that if a belief is widely held to be more popular than its alternative, it does have more credibility. I never once said that this proves it to be true, but only an idiot would reason that a belief held by a vast majority of people is less credible than a belief held by the minority of the opposite opinion.

So because people -think- government workers do less than the private sector (which has been proven egregiously false) then it is important in a discussion about government workers being important or essential... how?

We have polls that show a significant portion of Americans think that Obamacare and the ACA are two different things. This is pretty much proof positive that not only does the majority of america have no fucking clue what Obamacare actually is, it also proves that a lot of politicians who got elected solely to repeal Obamacare were elected under faulty premise and also proves that a large portion of Americans are just plain stupid and highly subject to propaganda, meaning any poll is useless for discussion involving facts.

[Laize]

right now we have more armed guards posted to keep victors from seeing these monuments then we have park rangers posted on a day they are opened

I liked this image the first day of the shutdown.

Caption: "Because Normandy was closed too."

[Deleted]

non-essential basically means no one dies if they dont do their job (or at least there is no real "danger").

It does not mean the job is not essential for society to function properly.

[Laize]

So because people -think- government workers do less than the private sector (which has been proven egregiously false) then it is important in a discussion about government workers being important or essential... how?

We have polls that show a significant portion of Americans think that Obamacare and the ACA are two different things. This is pretty much proof positive that not only does the majority of america have no fucking clue what Obamacare actually is, it also proves that a lot of politicians who got elected solely to repeal Obamacare were elected under faulty premise and also proves that a large portion of Americans are just plain stupid and highly subject to propaganda, meaning any poll is useless for discussion involving facts.

Use of Obamacare as a pejorative is nothing short of an Orwellian appropriation of an innocuous word to suit a purpose. In this case it's convincing people to oppose Obamacare because it's evil and will destroy America without accurately explaining why. It's Newspeak IRL.

I hate Obamacare too, but at least I can explain why.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Use of Obamacare as a pejorative is nothing short of an Orwellian appropriation of an innocuous word to suit a purpose. In this case it's convincing people to oppose Obamacare because it's evil and will destroy America without accurately explaining why. It's Newspeak IRL.

I hate Obamacare too, but at least I can explain why.

I've been thinking of writing up an explanation of what "obamacare" is (I.e. all of the fake rumors congealed into one monster bill) then put it right beside ACA. Obamacare is like this Washington terror that will destroy America, hide yo kids hide yo wife! Meanwhile some people don't even know what ACA stands for or even exists, much less what's actually in it.

I will have a discussion about why the ACA is bad with people that have a clue, meanwhile I just kinda shake my head at people who check under their bed and in their closet to make sure Obamacare isn't hiding there.

[Spectral]

Everyone I talk to about the ACA seems to like the goodies (kids on insurance longer, subsidies for people to buy insurance, preexisting condition changes), but doesn't like the mechanism that pays for it (mandate and fine). Shock of all shocks, people like things for free.

[paralleluniverse]

Everyone I talk to about the ACA seems to like the goodies (kids on insurance longer, subsidies for people to buy insurance, preexisting condition changes), but doesn't like the mechanism that pays for it (mandate and fine). Shock of all shocks, people like things for free.

No surprise. People also like welfare, good public services, good infrastructure, and a balanced budget (this one is a bad idea, but anyway).

But they don't like the taxes required to pay for it.

- - - Updated - - -

Are the people who produce the unemployment and GDP numbers, which are currently not working due to shutdown, essential government workers?

[Symphonic]

Hate this example. An extremely small portion of uneducated people believed this. It's been over 2500 years since scholars accepted flat-earth theory.

And unfortunately, a lot of people still think the earth is flat. (I suppose they are uneducated if they think that). visit http://www.theflatearthsociety.org

[Laize]

Everyone I talk to about the ACA seems to like the goodies (kids on insurance longer, subsidies for people to buy insurance, preexisting condition changes), but doesn't like the mechanism that pays for it (mandate and fine). Shock of all shocks, people like things for free.

It seemed to me that every time they extended the time frame kids could be on parents' insurance, everyone born in 1984 got fucked in the ass. They did it like 3 times... and each time I was JUST too old to receive it.

[GennGreymane]

NASA is considered non essential, and we know we have them for a reason.