You’re missing the key piece.
For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worshipful_Company_of_Security...
If we accept the federal government can’t do anything what are we paying taxes for? Get rid of social security too, I’m not going to make it to whatever stupidly high age they raise retirement to.
I used to be a big government liberal, but the problem is eventually people you disagree with start running super government.
If I want to live in a high tax state with a social safety net, cool. Others can move to Mississippi pay no taxes and brag about how they have a higher GPD than Spain ignoring the actual quality of life is much worse
The systems are cracking and breaking and I think the only outcome is going to be balkanization.
Maybe the super-rich can create their own nonprofit to fund commercial space tourism or whatever absurdity they've deemed so important that it needs spending elsewhere to be cut and diverted to them.
We can hold non profits accountable in ways that we can't with the government. Accountability in government takes 4-6 years when we get an election cycle. If a non profit is mismanaging funds it takes 4-6 minutes for me to give my money to a different non profit.
It’s definitely a few notches above “very few”.
If you actually walk along a few trails on a regular cadence, it's clear that there are many different people - it's not just the same people every weekend.
I feel like this sort of comment (from someone with 14k+ “karma” points) is a kind of DoS attack on their self-perceived opponents.
But nonetheless, here’s three benefits for all, regardless of usage:
- reduction in healthcare costs, both physical and mental
- increased tourism
- increased appreciation for environment which in turn loops back into this list from the top
Just focusing on health alone has wide ranging benefits. And if all you care about are tax revenues and GDP, a healthy, happy workforce goes quite a way to improving both.
I’m not going to list anymore because I got other things to do and think about. And this isn’t going to change your mind anyways.
I have a hypothesis that Americans are so scared of others benefitting from themselves that they miss that many, many more people are deserving and it makes for a better society. But they don’t see that and would rather punish the deserving and themselves, if it means the undeserving will hurt more. I think this thinking also bleeds into your social justice movements.
Is it too much mental gymnastics that it’s a lot more interesting to talk to happy, sophisticated, educated people? To enjoy maintained public parks? To learn from the past in museums that present all kinds of viewpoints? To have a strong workforce that is confidently going to the doctor?
I’ll never get what’s so hard about things affecting other things, even if it doesn’t immediately yield a profit.
I’m all for having better checks and stopping fraud. But not at the expense of helping no one. I’d rather keep a system running even if there is waste as long as it mostly works.
- Moped
GA-ME 2010
Volunteer maintainer Smarts Mountain Ranger Trail (AT side trail) 2021-present.
Landowner and volunteer maintainer on the Cross Rivendell Trail (CRT) 2023-present
My wife, who also thru-hiked the AT, before we met is on the CRT board.
We spent three days of our vacation in 2023 helping to re-roof Jeffers Brook Shelter on the AT.
We are also members of the ATC, GMC, MATC, and PCTA and have been for some combination of those between us since before we met.
ETA:
Oh yeah, also two weeks ago we helped hump a 200 pound bear box in to Velvet Rocks Shelter on the AT.
let’s take it a step further, let’s cut spending to anything that brings people joy! let’s all be crabs in a bucket together. convert public beaches to private beaches, public parks to private parks, make every school in the country a private school.
this will surely increase the well being of our society (sarcasm).
where does this crazy fallacy end? Taxes (and life) is not about min-maxing what benefits YOU personally. It’s about min-maxing your community and society. Kind of like how there is no “I” in team…