Political Things I Actually Care About
09/28/2011
There’s lots of political things that I know I should care about, but it’s nearly impossible to force yourself to care about something. I thought I’d do an honest review of my opinions and catalog the few issues that I really do feel something for.
I think the United States spends too much on the military and too little on education. The latest military budget is 663 billion and the latest education budget is 69.9 billion. Military is about 10 times larger. I support the troops (whatever that means, I guess it means I think they are fine folks). I like the United States. I consider myself patriotic. I think it sucks I have to say all that because when I say “we should spend less on the military” I feel like I’ll come under attack for those things.
I think gay marriage should be legal. That, along with any other possible equality-related thing that they don’t have now but could.
I don’t think whether I wear my seat-belt or not should be mandated by law. I feel the same about other laws that “overreach” in that same way – interfering in my life “for my own good”.
I tend to vote for the president who can speak the most clearly and intelligently and also aligns most closely with my few simple views.
That’s it. I think that’s an embarrassingly small amount of things to care about, but if I’m completely honest that’s all the caring I can muster up for politics. I hope we can still be friends.
How about the mandate to have kids buckled up?
Recently on the news here in the UK I heard that they want to inject money back into the economy. To do this they would invest in transport systems (very valid idea) and the broadband infrastructure (what?).
I understand that the internet is kind of a big thing, but allowing me to download full length movies in HD, or play Halo all day on xbox live is not going to help the economy. It’s going to make me wanna sit on my butt and watch films and play xbox – and come to think about it I can do this on my ‘slow’ broadband.
What possible advantage can faster broadband have? and should any government – whose credit car bill is larger than mine – be paying for it?
@Paul, I think (and I could be very wrong), the idea behind improving transport or broadband is the jobs associated with those area pick up, not only the companies who do those jobs but the ones who support them.
Take improving the roads for instance, sure a construction company who builds the road gets work. But if the job is big enough that the company needs to buy new trucks or even repair those trucks get work also. The work fans out over a large path of industries, companies who make the safety equipment for the workers, hand tools, lumber yards, even shipping companies who get the supplies to the workers.
After all that work is done and a new rail line is running from a small suburb of Los Angeles to the heart of Los Angeles, someone who is out of work can get a job in the heart of a major traffic jam place like LA. So I in my opinion the positive effects doesn’t just stop with the construction of these new transportation ways but continues after.
Now just take the highway or rail transportation ideas and replace them with the internet. Small companies in small towns who don’t have the hight speed internet as large cities can expand their reach and their business.
Re: seatbelts – maybe less so in the US but in places where the government pays for healthcare, mandating seatbelts, bike helmets, healthy foods can be done for economic reasons rather that just “for your own good” (if the taxpayer has to pay for treating your preventable injury).
I like that internet stuff was brought up. I could DEFINITELY muster up some caring about that, but it’s only rarely anything comes into politics that affects it much. Net neutrality was the last big one and it seems like we got out of that one OK for now.
I may have had a bad day with my last post (cue ambiguous =P).
I can see the benefits of faster broadband, but I don’t think it’s the biggest priority. It is already easier for people of the UK to gain access to the internet as we would struggle to have a ‘remote’ town. We are a small island compared to America, under a days drive and you can be the other side of the UK – compared to 2 days New York to California (Thanks Google Maps).
I better mention that I don’t have any real ideas as to where the UK should be spending its money!!
I do agree with Chris that there are some internet related political concerns, but they are rare – I cannot imagine the internet as they have it in China. Having the luxury of watching a tutorial or music video on Youtube – priceless. I might read more into this… could I live without Youtube?
@Butch, sounds like you’re talking about Government-funded ‘Trickle-Down’ economics! :P
Though in my metro area, the public transit is heavily subsidized (local cities pay 75% of each ticket). Putting the infrastructure in place is indeed good, but it’s like moving from a rental to owning: there’s a LOT more costs than just the mortgage. And knowing the price forecasting abilities of politicians… ;)
Yeah you should spend less on the military,
but what if i say where i live even having a girl friend is illegal? or in some months eating is also illegal?
Yeah, in Iran politics rules over every brain cells, “for our own good”!