The government's "money"

Case and point happened in Bethesda, MD just this morning.  Apparently a 66 inch water main burst and caused a 4-5 foot wall of water to gush out over one of the major commuter roadways.  It stranded some 15 vehicles as a result.  One resident who lives on or near the street involved said the street resembled the Potomac River at one point.

This is just one example of our aging infrastructure (the bridge collapse last year was another).  We have major infrastructure problems in this country and they need to be addressed or else we are going to pay dearly very soon.  Whether it be power lines, water lines, sewage lines, roadways, bridges, etc.  All of them are in desperate need of repair and have been forgotten about for far too long.

Since we know that Obama is going to be working on getting another economic stimulus package passed I would much rather see it spent on beefing up our nations infrastructure rather than bailing out companies or sending checks out to everyone.  At least doing so would help to stabalize the economy, at least temporarily.

Excellent article.  My state (WV) has some serious problems with infrastructure.  Every winter there are countless water main breaks due to the cold weather and the extremely old water lines.  That doesn't even count the gas leaks that we hear about (and the ones we don't) and don't even get me started on the random power outages that we get at my house because of the really old power lines.  I can only hope that these infrastructure issues get addressed, otherwise I predict that sometime within the next 30 years we will be living life in the dark ages where running water is scarce and power is a luxury.

True - but then that is not the feds.  Maryland squanders their money instead of addressing their infrastructure (and they are not alone), and the feds suck off the money they could use after they squander it so there is none left.

There is a reason we are not the United STATE of AMerica.  Other states, not so incompetant, do not seem to be suffering the same fate.

Regardless, the way to get more money to fix the infrastructure is not to deprive the engine of the economy of the way to generate additional revenues.

I could be wrong but I don't think Brad was looking for people to feel sorry but to understand that taxing just for the sake of taxing is not the solution to all our problems. I agree our country has it's priorities screwed up, what I don't understand is rather than stopping bad spending (such as all these bailouts and wasting money on other useless things) they just want to raise taxes to keep the bad spending and on top of that try to fix things.

If you want money to fix broken pipes, which by the way, is mostly the local governments responsibilities, then stop pork and other wasteful spending. 

Take a look at cities and states across America and look at how they spend their money.  They spend it on sports stadiums, parades, and other useless nonsense and then cry foul when a pipe breaks.

We've had the same freaking problem in Quebec in the past 2 years.. wait, maybe more (we are always about 4-5 years ahead of the USA when it comes to those kind of problem. We worry about the baby boomers since 10 years ago). The diagnostic was very simple:

No politican want to come to the news and announce a project of retooling the sewer pipes. It's not glamourous, and they are afraid they won't make the news (since they have to succeed at compressing whatever they say to a 10-second clip max). However, superprojects always look good on the news, so they always jump at the opportunity.

Eventually, we had to make the choice, and now we have a tasteless boring mayor/administrator that merely spend money where it should. Politics have become extremely boooooooringzzzzz, nobody is interested in the voting process of our cities anymore, etc... Also, in time of crisis, we do not know if he will answer well. Is an attention-seeker politican would be better at reacting quickly and the right way, or the one that is boring but good administrator would be?

Also, due to the lack of interest, the debate level have been dragging down, and since nobody is interested, it has fallen into petty politics level. I don't even dream of thinking how we could stop that bad cycle of pettyfying that feeds itself.

Just to say. It possible to succeed at doing the "right" thing for the administration, but you will end up with a boring governement that nobody actually is interested with, thu hurting the democratic process. We have horrible voting %

Ah, there is the crux - "fair share".  

Our government has collected so much "fair shares" that it has expanded itself over the years to buying stock in companies and bailing out other companies.

It doesn't really matter to me either way. I'm fine.  But when people are bellyaching about the economy and lack of jobs, it's worth noting that the government is actually one of the biggest robbers of jobs.

Ah, so some jobs are more worthy than others based purely on what they do. 

Perhaps we should have a command economy where a group of wise people get together and decide what we do based on what they feel is best. People who build roads and fix infrastructure are more important than people who write software or other things that aren't "necessities".

Heck, every person I hire is taking away a potential ditch digger or road repair guy. I'm a bastard I guess.

You just got to be number 1, dont ya.

Yes, and those bellyaching the loudest are the same ones that are villifying you for trying to help.  It goes beyond killing the messenger, to killing the saviors.

Don't get me wrong I completely understand that infrastructure issues are the states responsibility I was merely agreeing with LW that our infrastructure is a mess, some states are definitely worse than others but the infrastructure as a whole is a mess.

As for MD, I am all too aware of their wastefullness.  I was born and raised in MD and I saw a lot of the wastefullness first hand.  I still get annoyed every time I hear about the Baltimore Ravens because I am reminded about all the waste that went into acquiring the team in the first place.  I hear about the water main break in Montgomery County and I remember the wastes that went into that country trying to build a road between Route 270 and I-95, all the planning, eminent domain crap, environmental studies, etc.  All for a road that is unlikely to help any of the traffic problems in the area anyway, millions of dollars wasted.

My main point was that since a new economic stimulus package is inevitable out of the new administration and new congress I just hope that they use it to fund some much needed infrastructure projects rather than just sending out checks to people like they did last time.

Of course they are going to send out checks, that is what they do, pander to their voters.  Infrastructure doesn't mean anything since America has become an entitlement nation.

How is that his fualt of any honest companies that are trying to make it fualts? I mean is it on the shoulders of the tax payers that the gov cant control its spending or balance a budget? No its not. Until the gov can show that they can balance for once and keep doing it, then by no means do they have a right to take more money. In fact this will have the reverse affect and they will just keep spendig

On principle I'm against any government bailouts. Moreover if any are deemed necessary, then I expect to see the IRS taking back lots of wealth from the executives that ran the company into the ground and some liberal jail time dished out as well.

Look.... when it comes to raising taxes the gov uses scare tatics to make us tax payers bend over backwards and give them more money. There are a few places that actually try to cut out what is not needed... Like here in my town... they decided that snow removal was not gonna happen in certain areas that are not used alot (maybe 2 people durring the winter.... ) and not remove snow from those areas... its saving the city 7000 bucks just in the winter time! HOLY SH**! who woulda thunk?!

its stuff like that that needs to be done... yeah it sucks for those 2 people... but out of a city of 20000 people... its not a big thing

I wonder if those two peopple should get a rebate on the percentage of tax that went to snow removal?

Gee, we could save a ton of money if we just let those in need of transplants die, after all they are just a small percentage of the population.

And Frogboy's taxes are the lower taxes of his boy Bush. Never can pay less tax, right Brad? 

Does anyone pay attention to the road signs at road improvement sites?  What cities collect the amounts of money necessary for such repairs? 

Quit the finger pointing y'all.  Every one of you bloaks has a voice: get down to city hall or the country seat and start jumping up and down. 

Good Grief. 

I don't know how anyone can read the original post and figure it as anything OTHER than complaint about BAILOUT. He isn't complaining about taxes, he isn't saying infrastructure investment is bad, he isn't saying he wants more money. He is saying that bailing out means taking from the most successful companies who know how to use money and would otherwise expand, and giving to the LEAST successful companies who have demonstrated they don't know how to manage money and are going to lose it all.

This is how:

Sounds to me as though poor Brad is kvetching about paying taxes and secondarily how those taxes are being used.

A point to be made:

We can define success in many ways: making something useful that people need v making something useful that people don't need; making something people want that has value v making something people don't want that has value; making something useless that people want v making something uselss that people don't want.  Unfortunately, many things fall into the category of "making useless things that people want" thereby wasting valuable resoucres for nothing useful at all. I put the gaming industry into this category. 

Many industries do not have the same labor and supply problems other industries have.  Here's the thing, though, every industry will come upon hard times, even the entertainment industry.  My fervent hope is that the gaming industry will fail sometime sooner than later.  I see no redeeming value in it at all.

 Be well.

I still cant see how its justifyable to take money from people/companies that earned the money and give it to someone that has not.

Lets just be straight here... I am by no means rich... I make under 30K a year with a family of 4. I can live decent... and I understand that if I want to make more money I can do so with a bit more hard work.

This is a reaosn why you're poor, LW.  You don't understand what money is used for.

High taxes don't affect me personally in the slighest. It affects you and people like you.  

The first thing tht gets cut isn't my salary. It's hiring new workers and expanding our business.  That means fewer jobs available.

And how are those taxes being used? They're being used to give to people who have clearly no idea how to use business (bail outs and such).

I am not sure how you could possibly read what I wrote as asking for some sort of sympathy. Sympathy for what? That there's fewer jobs for middle class people? 

Well good, in the meantime, you can get the hell off my site, asshole.

(Sodaiho has been exiled, blog removed). (Don't crap on the people who provide your free blog)

Incidentally, most of our revenue does not come from games. I just notice that losers like to fixate on game development as a way to belittle the source of our economic success.

One thing that history shows is that small minded people will always assume that they hold a monopoly on wisdom and that the average person is too stupid to know what's best for them and thus they and others like them should control what is and isn't allowed in society.

At the end of the day, it's irrelevant whether my business produces cars, widgets, software, food, or books. It produces a product/service that people voluntarily choose to pay for.  The production of those products/services involves employing people which provides them opportunity to pursue their own goals.

What kind of person goes onto someone's site, on Christmas day, and tells him that what he does has no redeeming value at all? 

The word despicable doesn't even begin to describe such a person. Sodaiho, I hope you are able to get the help you desperately need. You clearly are an extremely bitter unhappy person.

Some of the comments here are case points why there are not more successful people in the U.S.

Games are useless but the auto industry is very important? I strongly disagree!

I would say I was playing devils advocate but it isn't the truth. I am a GAMER, I spend A LOT OF TIME AND MONEY on games. To see my beloved hobby belittled like that is insulting. (although I imgaine it was more insulting towards brad, and on christmas, ouch)

1. Games are the basic method of learning for all mammals, they are used to teach hand eye coordination as well as stimulate brain activity, providing a slew of benefits from less car accidents to improved tactical capacity to reduced alzheimer occurance. (according to various research).

2. The auto industry is a polluting wasteful inefficient drek that only exists in the way it does because they legally bribed US congress to NOT build a public transit system. Every other country has it, but the US doesn't. In fact the best is probably in germany, which was built BY the us as part of post WW2 reconstruction, at the same time the US decided to build a highway system and NOT build ANY public transit systems.

3. Even if you ignore the educational and mental benefits of games and assume they are a complete luxury that is useless (which they aren't), like say jewlery. Those luxuries are a VERY important economic force. People work FOR luxuries, they can bum and make due with less necessities, but if you want that Xbox that by god you are getting it, I know plenty of people who only work so that they can have more computer stuff while they live in a trailer park! Heck i'd be a hermit myself if it wasn't for my toys. And even for people who WOULD be working anyways, so called "luxuries" increase a person's morale and make them more productive in society; and more likely to push for more productive positions to get more money to have more luxuries (for example, open a business or get a degree). Without a degree, working on minimum wage you can EASILY fulil ALL your "basic necessities". The only POSSIBLE reason to bother making MORE money than minimum wage is to spend it on luxuries, the only reason the vast majority of people (including me) go to college than is for luxuries.

There are only two systems I am aware of when someone works for nothing but base necessities and not for luxury items... communism and slavery.

4. As brad mentioned, stardock makes more than games, it also makes a variety of OTHER useful programs (games are useful). Many of which fall into the morale / ease of use / productivity increasing bracket.

You know what, I just thought of something, when obama makes due on his promises of wealth redistribution and other uses for "the government's money", the only remaining incestive to work rather then being a leech IS luxury items... Food, housing, even healthcare are all provided... so why work?

Heck you can just borrow heavily and than get handouts for that too. but working and producing allows you to buy MORE fun stuff.