Your tax dollars at work, continued.... - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

mikemover · #1 03-09-2003, 03:54 PM

Q. Who is the world’s largest purchaser of condoms.

The taxpayers of the United States, through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
_________________________________

Q. How many taxpayer dollars have been spent on condoms for the Philippines?:

Almost $7.5 million. At a nickel a piece, that’s a lot of condoms.

_________________________________

Q. What do the people of the Philippines use these condoms for?

Party balloons. Oh .. and the contraceptive pills we send them? They use those to fertilize their orchids.

Pi$$ed off yet? I am.

Mike

DieselHead · #2 03-09-2003, 05:29 PM

There you have it folks, hard evidence that ALL the condoms and ALL the contraceptive pills are used for balloons and fertilizer respectively. Am I right in arriving at this conclusion from your statement? ALL the condoms and ALL the pills?

Oh, and folks, to put things in perspective, ONE F-14 Tomcat costs $45,000,000. Our entire defense budget is $300 Billion.

Our taxes are also use for things you like, such as infrastructure and transportation, defense and veterens' affairs. You know, I think if even half those condoms and pills are used to slow down birth rates and prevent AIDS, I say money well spent. I guess Mike would say though, that if they wayt to have sex, have ten kids and spread AIDS like wild fire, that's their perrogative. After all, it's their fault that no one ever educated them about the dangers of casual and unprotected sex right? I think that when you're talking about people's health and well being, we should extend ourselves and share the benefits of our medicine, experience, and knowledge. But, then again, I'm coming at this from a slant where I care about other people's livelihood and personal health. Not everyone thinks this way.

Alex

jeffwolinski · #3 03-09-2003, 05:33 PM

Another perspective to take on mike's post is the fact the US in fact does an awful lot to help countries less fortunate. A lot more than many wish to give us credit for, both here and abroad.

See, we're not so evil after all!

DieselHead · #4 03-09-2003, 05:36 PM

Jeff,
Agreed. The United States is not often given due credit. Eventhough we technically give an extraordinarily low amount of foreign aid in dollar amounts, we do have lots of programs designed to aid in foreign affairs. Although, we also have lots of economic policies that majorly screw up foreign economies. Look at what happened in Jamaica. Take the good with the bad right?

Alex

#5 03-09-2003, 07:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mikemover
Pi$$ed off yet?

Pardon the pun??

73MB280SEL · #6 03-10-2003, 03:16 AM

Yup, small potatoes. You should examine the Big Dig in Boston if you want to see waste.

Sholin

mikemover · #7 03-10-2003, 08:47 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DieselHead
There you have it folks, hard evidence that ALL the condoms and ALL the contraceptive pills are used for balloons and fertilizer respectively. Am I right in arriving at this conclusion from your statement? ALL the condoms and ALL the pills?

Oh, and folks, to put things in perspective, ONE F-14 Tomcat costs $45,000,000. Our entire defense budget is $300 Billion.

Our taxes are also use for things you like, such as infrastructure and transportation, defense and veterens' affairs. You know, I think if even half those condoms and pills are used to slow down birth rates and prevent AIDS, I say money well spent. I guess Mike would say though, that if they wayt to have sex, have ten kids and spread AIDS like wild fire, that's their perrogative. After all, it's their fault that no one ever educated them about the dangers of casual and unprotected sex right? I think that when you're talking about people's health and well being, we should extend ourselves and share the benefits of our medicine, experience, and knowledge. But, then again, I'm coming at this from a slant where I care about other people's livelihood and personal health. Not everyone thinks this way.

Alex

Then YOU extend YOURSELF and share YOUR money...because I did not volunteer my tax dollars to buy condoms and birth control for some other country to use as fertilizer. No, you are not supposed to assume that I said "ALL", because I DIDN'T say "all".

I care about other people's livelihood, but my more immediate concern is MY livelihood, and I am overtaxed, partly because of an endless stream of CRAP like this. This is only one tiny example that I stumbled across.

Mike

jeffwolinski · #8 03-10-2003, 09:15 AM

Coming from a nice conservative such as myself, it may surprising to some that I deplore the fact that the Republican-led Congress continues to blow way too much money on stupid-a$$ pork barrel BS. Whatever happened to doing away with the federal Dept. of Education, which educates no one and wastes a boatload of money that should more appropriately be spent on direct education costs? Bureaucracies are self-perpetuating, regardless of the party in power, and our "representatives" continue to generally look out for their number one - themselves!

Although military spending can sometimes seem out-of-whack, this is one area in which I have absolutely no problem with large amounts of spending. Much of this technology is state of the art and requires substantial development. And this is the number one priority for our federal government - defense of this nation.

mikemover · #9 03-10-2003, 09:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by DieselHead
The United States is not often given due credit. Eventhough we technically give an extraordinarily low amount of foreign aid in dollar amounts, we do have lots of programs designed to aid in foreign affairs.
Alex

Extraordinarily LOW?!?! We spend FAR more in foreign aid than any other country...In fact, we spend far more than most other countries COMBINED!

And, as your post attests to, it goes largely unappreciated.

Mike

#10 03-10-2003, 12:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DieselHead
There you have it folks, hard evidence that ALL the condoms and ALL the contraceptive pills are used for balloons and fertilizer respectively. Am I right in arriving at this conclusion from your statement? ALL the condoms and ALL the pills?

Oh, and folks, to put things in perspective, ONE F-14 Tomcat costs $45,000,000. Our entire defense budget is $300 Billion.

Our taxes are also use for things you like, such as infrastructure and transportation, defense and veterens' affairs. You know, I think if even half those condoms and pills are used to slow down birth rates and prevent AIDS, I say money well spent. I guess Mike would say though, that if they wayt to have sex, have ten kids and spread AIDS like wild fire, that's their perrogative. After all, it's their fault that no one ever educated them about the dangers of casual and unprotected sex right? I think that when you're talking about people's health and well being, we should extend ourselves and share the benefits of our medicine, experience, and knowledge. But, then again, I'm coming at this from a slant where I care about other people's livelihood and personal health. Not everyone thinks this way.

Alex

Our government currently burns through over 2.5 TRILLION dollars in taxes annually. This same government continues to scream and holler about how this isn't enough. Please spare us the "we gotta help out our fellow man" mantra. If the government would actually BUDGET their expenditures the same way that we all must do to survive on our means, it could function on a small fraction of the amount of money they consume, and still fulfill the vast majority of the societal leeching welfare programs.

Personally, I think that the US should cut off ALL of their "aid" that they currently dump on other countries. It just MIGHT give the US haters some perspective on just how much of their pitiful worthless existances all depend on us.

73MB280SEL · #11 03-10-2003, 02:03 PM

Look, While our Government spends 2 - 2.5 Trillion dollars, our economy measures 7 - 8 Trillion. Is 2 Trillion too much? Are there pork barrel projects and wasteful expenditures? Yes, but to date, that hasn't crippled the American economy. France, yes, they have a Socialist government that has crippled their economy. The same can be said of Germany and England. We would never put up with the level of unemployment that they endure. Especially considering that many of the unemployed in European countries could be employed if it were not for the incentives for remaining unemployed.

Here's what I think: It does a disservice to the cause of an efficient, cost effective government to NITPICK about specific programs under 10 billion. Sure, it drums up alot of flatulence, but really, there won't be any significant savings percentage wise until we tackle the BIG ONES: social security, medicare, defense spending, debt service, .... This is what we are really spending money on, and I don't think we're going to cut any of these any time soon.

Here's what I also think: There ARE things we need to spend money on. I work for the Federal Government. I am an engineer on the most modern air traffic control radar to date, the ARSR-4. It was designed in the mid '80's and was obsolete the day it was installed. It replaced some of the the ARSR-1/2/3 series of radar which were designed in the 50's, 60's, and 70's respectively. We use these obsolete radar EVERY TIME YOU FLY. We NEED to replace these. This will cost approximately 4 - 5 billion dollars, but it's too easy for someone to attack the expenditure of 5 billion dollars as "pork barrel", so we won't do it until it's an emergency.

Furthermore: The US has the most influence around the World of any country. Yes, it's hard to believe at this juncture in our history, but think about our reach: fighting Colombian terrorists, protecting Japan, fighting communists in the Philipines, Eastern European security, protecting Tiawan, Korea, and the list goes on. We have significant obligations abroad. If the Philipines want 7.5 mil in condoms, let them have it. If the Turks want 30 billion, that's OK too (remember, we have a 7 - 8 trillion dollar economy). That's our OBLIGATION in the world today.

Again, let me reiterate: In the '80's, Democrats complained that Ronald Reagan would leave us economically behind the Europeans and Japanese due to our defense obligations and debt service. We need Government to he'p us manage the economy. We needed to concentrate on the Economy not defense or foreign policy. Well, it turns out that the US economy is too strong to be judged so lowly. It always has been since WWII. We simply outgrew the deficit (and ran a surplus for a short while during the Clinton Administration) and outpaced Europe and Japan. The naysayer's that said we had to remain a purely manufacturing economy and not loose a single job to Europe/Japan/Mexico were simply wrong. We showed that the US economy is the strongest force the World has ever seen.

Moral is: don't sweat the small stuff and remember that the target is moving: The US economy will be 10 trillion soon enough.

Sholin (not an economist) in Mustang

G-Benz · #12 03-10-2003, 02:19 PM

Yeah...that's what I was going to say!

Kuan · #13 03-10-2003, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by 73MB280SEL
Look, While our Government spends 2 - 2.5 Trillion dollars, our economy measures 7 - 8 Trillion. Is 2 Trillion too much?

Is it? I don't know? That's the problem with Laffer curve economics. The analysis of revenue vs. govt. spending may or may not be the ideal tool for fine tuning economic systems. 2 Trillion may be too much, or too little, and even worse, the model may not hold when the economy is 10 trillion dollars big.

tabasco85331 · #14 03-10-2003, 11:06 PM

Wasting my hard earned money on supporting foriegn countries and on our countries biggest waste - WELFARE ! My wife and I studied hard in high school so that we would be elegible to get in good colleges . In college , we both held down full time jobs that were related to our majors while at the same time carrying a full course load . Once out of college we both got jobs at great companies and through hard work and much dedication worked our way up to the high level positions and salaries that we enjoy now . Every day of our life has been working to achieve the life style that we have . When I hear somebody say that we are lucky I laugh , and say luck is for lottery winners . What pisses me off is that my wife and I are in the 40% tax range ! That means 40% of our time is going to support high taxes that support a grossly unfair welfare system and foriegn aid ! Democrats support high taxes because they are the ones using them and pay the lowest percentage out . Republicans ARE the tax base of this country . My wife and I groomed our life for success since the beginning . No , not everyone is just entitled to my money because I have done well . All the crack smoking no job bastards out there don t get my sympathy ! Boo Hoo ...

DieselHead · #15 03-10-2003, 11:48 PM

1) Not all welfare recipients are "crack smoking no job bastards" (eloquently put). You're right, "crack smoking no job bastards" shouldn't get your support, but don't lump them in with all welfare recipients, just like we shouldn't group all Arabs with terrorists.

2) Republicans are the tax base NOW, but only because Barry Goldwater, a hero to a lot I'm sure, pronounced that "we" (White folk) shouldn't support the poor Blacks. That shifted the Southern (of course they're not going to support the Blacks they oppres..... we won't go there) populists away from the Democrats, who were championing equality, towards the conservatives/republicans. No matter what Mike will say, there isn't complete equality in this country for everyone. Supporting the claim that there were equality would be denying that slavery and treatment of Blacks as second class (which really only ended 35 years ago, that's less than one generation, that means that you or your parents could have participated in the segregation of Blacks) never happened.

I agree, the welfare system needs to be severely revised, but there are many legitimate people who need a jump start.