It is often amusing to me how people can't comprehend the sort of money that governments spend as if it's water. SomethingAwful says, mock-quoting Hillary Clinton, "I like the idea of giving every baby born in America a $5,000 account that will grow over time. This one I really did say: check out this news link of me saying this crazy shit. By the way, there's about four million kids born in America every year. Vote me."
The implication is (and in the news link too) "how are you going to pay for that?" There are several good replies to that, eg. 1. by example - "about the same way we pay for public schools for those same kids five years later. Only easier." I found figures for per-student per-year public school costs ranging from $7000 to $13500. Of course, the $5000 is in addition to the public school costs, but my point is, it's clearly not a massive ridiculous number, because it is smaller than the annual education cost per child - and that greater cost crops up about ten times per child, not just once.
2. by comparison - "I don't know, maybe we'd just buy eight fewer Virginia-class attack submarines each year?" Wikipedia says one of those costs 2.6 billion dollars. Four million kids at $5000 each is 20 billion dollars. I doubt the US military actually buys 8 such submarines every year, but the point is that 20 billion dollars is not the big potatoes it sounds like, in government spending scale. The defence budget is about 360 billion dollars, the non-defence discretionary budget even larger still. 20 billion is big, but it's not comically "that is ridiculous you can't possibly" big.
3. facetiously - "I'm not, you are, taxpayer!" So, given that it is perfectly feasible, is it a good idea? I don't know. I like the idea of college education being more easily achievable without the subsequent crippling debt that many Americans suffer from. But why nominally give them the money 18 years early? And then there's the weirdness where the money isn't necessarily going to go for a college education - and, indeed, if it's being given to the 18-year-old as a sudden lump of about $10000, how likely is it to instead be spent on a nice holiday and some drugs? But then I have a dilemma - on the one hand I like the idea of college education being helped along, but on the other hand I'm not sure I approve of people being shoved into college because someone else is paying for it. Also not sure I like the idea of college kids getting free money and other kids not. So maybe the $5000 bond is a good idea - it certainly has fairness. But governments are supposed to be good for society - is a $10000 stepping stone (easily frittered on a big party) going to be as beneficial to society as a $10000 college grant? I'm not sure, I could see it going either way actually. I think the biggest problem with the $5000 bond idea is that idiots will mistake it for a reason to have kids.
On the subject of spending huge amounts of money on things that may not be a good idea, Richard Garriott is an awesome crazy bastard. His house comprises most of the things I have always wanted in a house, including secret passages, underwater tunnel, rotating room, suits of armour and the oddly specific recent addition to the things I want, a cave-bear skull. The sod even did it slightly better than I had envisioned, with magical magnetic locks on the secret passages. And clearly he wasn't restricted by any sort of fire safety laws. But still, no zip-line - I can still go one better, Garriott! He is also building a new structure, tentatively called The Village, seemingly as some sort of hotel thing, about which it is said:Traps were also included in the original design of the house. The master bedroom is designed to be on a giant elevating platform below a retractable ceiling. When activated, the ceiling will completely open up and the room would elevate to the top level of the house, essentially allowing the inhabitant to literally sleep under the stars. Some guest rooms are also located on a giant rotating platform. When the guests are asleep, the device could activate so that guests would wake up in a different room than they slept in the previous night. Which, like the cave-bear skull, is an oddly specific thing from my "things I would someday like" list. Furthermore, he owns a russian shuttle that is still on the moon, and in 2008 he is intending on going into space. I bet, like me, he wants to someday live in a moonbase. Good luck you literal lunatic, leave me a trail of breadcrumbs to follow. [21:27] [4 comments]
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