My friend came out as a libertarian

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > General Bullshit > My friend came out as a libertarian

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

God hates libertarians, tell him he's going to hell

it's Adam and Eve, not Adam and Ayn

# ¿ Jun 9, 2016 15:37

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 10:29

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

8-Bit Scholar posted:

Maybe so. My experience is more with rural communities than the urban poor, so my perspective is different in this, but what I see is a lot of local agencies--particularly schools--who are essentially slaves to a pithy federal handout that doesn't really ever address the budget issues in these towns. Populations are drying up too, and when school populations decrease, so does their budget. With a system that has a very distant moneylender doling out allotments to those who deserve it, you end up with a "one size fits none" solution. Maybe the Dept of Education will give ten thousand dollars to a school to buy more computers. But maybe this school doesn't need computers, maybe it needs something else--a specialized piece of equipment, or structural repairs or better curriculum tools. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn't, and overall the result is that small towns feel very alienated by a government who is clearly more interested in urban populations than rural ones.

It seems to me that matters like education, and a lot of social issues as well, would be best left to state governments. The Federal government honestly has enough to do with the maintaining of a standing army, regulating taxes, passing national budgets, defense decisions, and general global issues. In my mind, a community is well aware of what it needs or wants--even if, like in Texas, those needs and wants begin and end at football.

There's no elegant solution, but in my state I've seen education budgets shrink and a major ecological disaster occur as a direct result of mistakes or poor decisions made by federal agencies. It seems to me that local governments could stand to be empowered, so that their knowledge of the realities of their community might be better applied to actionable solutions.

blah blah blah all you want to do is eat the poor YOU loving MONSTER

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 02:54

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

ban this sick filth

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 02:54

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

Roylicious posted:

Except they're loving awful at it and at least half the states in the union would collapse if you did this.

this kind of condescension is what is fueling the trump campaign hth

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 18:38

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

Roylicious posted:

Uh okay except it is true just look at the budget numbers. You think individual states have the tax base to adequately fund programs by themselves without federal grants? So then why don't they just do that when the federal government waves its club and goes 'if you don't comply with X, no more funding.' That's how they got the drinking age to be 21 nationwide, among other things.

If you're right and the states don't need the federal government then don't take federal grant money. But they do, because they know they need it.

because, like 8-bit explained, the money is often getting funneled into places the school doesn't actually need while other necessities go unattended, and then they fail anyway

Roylicious posted:

Libertarianism isn't even good capitalism. It's just selfish baby poo poo that wants to reject the social contract while still benefiting from it.

opposition to federal control of everything is definitely this, and not rooted in the fact it's become a giant pork barrel for corporate lobbyists at all

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 18:47

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

Roylicious posted:

I mean by that logic, F35 is a total poo poo show program so obviously the government can't handle military administration so obviously they shouldn't be allowed to. Privatize the military!

good to see you've come out in favor of the 2nd amendment :buddy:

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 18:55

ANIME IS BLOOD: Sep 4, 2008; by zen death robot

the twist is I loathe goldbug libertarians as strongly as anyone in this thread as they are very often at odds with my profession, directly, I also just have a healthy skepticism of the federal government's ability to actually accomplish poo poo better than local and state government

it's almost as if allowing any group of sociopath middle managers, whether they're in the private or public sectors, free reign to do whatever they want from far away while dictating terms for the rest of us is, in general, a bad idea, and even the good actors with good intentions are going to gently caress up by not understanding the ground situation as well as they should

# ¿ Jun 10, 2016 22:54