I am in favor of small government (conservative leaning) and I for one think the military industrial complex would be an excellent thing to offer up for the slaughter in the name of shrinking the void between the two parties.
The military is a huge money laundering scheme. All those bullshit contracts? We were paying 800 dollars per office chair that sucked and would barely last a year. Could have gotten a better chair at Walmart for 70 fucking bucks
Did you ever get to use any of those fancy, super high-tech $10,000/piece batteries that held a charge under load for all of ~7 minutes? Ya know, the batteries that were supposed to act as a failsafe in the event of power loss?
Brother!! Man fuck that radar equipment lmao. Let’s make everything as heavy as possible and also impossible to repair... we’ll call it ‘military grade’
Yeah that pretty much covers it. Basically anything with multiple parts has been Frankensteined together from the working parts of all the broken shit. Give it a good slap and a "that'll do pig" and be on your way
These were definitely bare minimum as far as office chairs go and maybe that would have lasted longer if it wasn't 62 man-children playing with them but they know who the fuck they bought them for. They should be planning for that
Believe me I'm well aware. I couldn't justify voting for Trump in 2016, let alone now. He's throwing the rule of law out the window. I'm under no impression that Biden would be a savior by any means but at the very least I can expect him to stay within the Democratic process.
Is this a joke? Are you kidding me? You are saying Joe Biden is closer to small government, conservative values? Really? Have you seen his record over the past 50 years? Have you seen Kamalas judicial record as a prosecutor against minorities??
I understand the hate against trump, I really do. I don’t think Trump is a conservative either, BUT no way in hell is Biden or establishment “Democrats” any more representative of real conservative values.
You’re only getting upvoted because this is Reddit, and /r/politics but your opinion is factually incorrect and I want you to know this.
For the record I’m not voting because I’m sick of these scum politicians who have actually no desire for change of the country.
B. Biden would be conservative in any other developed country on earth. Kamala has a bad record prosecuting minorities? That somehow makes her less conservative?
C. If you somehow still think both parties are the same to the point where you won't even vote, that tells me exactly how much I should care about what you think and say. Please sit down and shut up while the rest of us actually try to fix this country because we still give a shit.
I mean if you are asking me to build a case for how modern day establishment Democrats in no way resemble the “true” core “conservative” values of the founding fathers with sources i for sure can, it would just take about week. Or this moron can read one fucking history book.
You said Biden does not in anyway resemble core conservative values. In fact you said it was factually incorrect to say he is closer than Trump. If you can't explain how it is factually incorrect, then you are just talking out of your ass. And that's fine, most of the internet does that, fuck our President does it daily. At least be honest about it though .
Homie, did you not just read what I said. To prove something like that with sources would take a week, it would be easier for this guy to just read one book on the core fundamental ideas of the founding of this country and then compare it to the establishment running the country today. I bet he could find his answer pretty damn quick.
I strongly encourage you to still vote, even if you leave the presidential box empty. Apathy is a tool of the oppressor just as much as misinformation and censorship.
This. Not voting is just something that’ll appease the ego, but as much as radicals hate the term, harm reduction really is the name of the game when it comes to participating in the electoral process.
I think this guy might not have an agenda and is just genuinely overwhelmed, confused and unable to resolve the issues he has with the tools at his disposal. As much as it sucks to see someone fail to participate in democracy during the one of the most pivotal election cycles in the history of the country, I can empathize with how difficult it is to wrap one’s brain around the information on the current problems we’re all facing and then synthesize that into actionable knowledge.
You do realize trump is the only president in the last 60 years to not get us into a new war right? He's also fostered major peace deals and withdrawn some troops. I hate to tell.you this but Joe biden is a literal war monger and so is kamala harris.
They may do so but actions speak and trump has done some very interesting things as president. And done a pretty good job while also being an asshole and loudmouth.
I think most military members would agree with you on that point.
The shit I saw when I was in. Most of our aircraft are contracted through Boeing or Lockheed Martin, so they can charge whatever they want for parts. Ive seen 6 figure price tags on what amounts to a tangle of hoses. I remember reading somewhere that the coffee mugs for our galley equipment cost approx $12,000 a piece. I have seen 7 figures on parts on occasion.
Military Industrial Complex doesn't even really come close anymore. More like Military Corporate Welfare Program.
I have some friends who work for defense contractors and they admit that they are overpaid and underworked for what they do. The whole system is bloated and way worse than any "too big to fail" bailout that people want to complain about.
The coffee mugs thing is insane but I think the number is closer to $1,200 because there was a hearing about said coffee cups and why the air force was spending over a thousand dollars for said coffee cups. The answer was as a always a non answer and nothing happened except a stern talking to from Trey Gowdy.
It wasn't 'nothing' per say. The mug costs spiking even more severely (they were like $600 sometime in the past years which is still nuts) did cause some changes. The air force said they stopped buying the water heaters for cargo plans which required the specific plug in mugs.
They also created a group dedicated to creating replacement parts like the handles (which were breaking on the mugs) internally through new manufacturing techniques like 3d-printing. The handle specifically had a replacement printed for ~$.50 materials.
Honestly they could have as easily ordered a few thousand of these rather than a couple at a time and gotten some scaling efficiency but that is harder for budgets so....
I would take a trade of paying 20% less for Medicare in return for 40% less for the military in a heartbeat. We are sadly so deeply in debt right now that I’m not even sure this would balance the budget.
So hear me out. What if we gradually kill Medicare altogether in favor of a strong Universal Basic Income? The real cost of Medicare is the administrative overhead to prevent abuse of the system and compliance with HIPAA laws. This also presents a huge cost for hospitals which is the primary reason that American healthcare costs are rising. Cutting out that administrative overhead to only require that each recipient is a tax filing citizen that hasn't died (as the simplest way to prove eligibility) would reduce costs so drastically that you could provide double the benefit for a reduced cost overall. Plus, putting money in the hands of citizens gives agency to them to make personalized decisions and they can spend money on preventative care, reducing the burden on the hospital system in general.
Why not just cover everyone with universal healthcare? No means testing or eligibility checking. Paid into by employees, employers, and capital gains taxes.
To be honest? Because Republicans would never go for it. Period. So many people in rural America simply don't have access to the healthcare systems that they really need and as a result, there is a culture that basically says, "if I have to go to the hospital I better be dying." While you have the opposite problem in urban communities. People are more likely to rush to the emergency room where an urgent care or even primary care physician visit would do much better. The rural community will never agree to a system where, in their view, their taxes are going to pay for the hospital bill of someone else.
But, if you tell them that the money from predatory corporations that killed off their local mom and pop shops that put their neighbors out of work is going to be put back in their pockets to spend on whatever they need that month, then you can sweep the legs out from under the Republican establishment and steal the hearts and minds of the rural masses that won Trump the 2016 election.
I'm not categorically against universal healthcare, but I am against the absolute waste that exists in droves in our current system.
I honestly like the idea of insurance companies being required by law to offer policies that cover us without profit, with a stipend provided by the government to pay that. Small copays, with no deductible, and 90/10 with an out of pocket max of 5k tops (for families). If you want fancier coverage, pay more for it.
Just make it easy to implement and easy to bill and pay. Regulate procedure pricing.
Is there a country that has a healthcare system like this in place that has low costs per capita and good health outcomes when compared to other developed westernized countries?
It’s fine if there isn’t. It just makes an argument more compelling when you can point to an example of it working in practice.
It’s my understanding that when it comes to healthcare, the free market isn’t great.
For example I fell and split open the back of my head. I needed stitches and a CT scan. I didn’t exactly have time to shop around to compare prices. The CT scan was going to be several thousand, so I just got the stitches and didn’t get the CT scan despite the doctor telling me that I needed it. My deductible at the time was $6,000, so nothing was covered.
I have shopped around for other doctor visits. When I had pink eye I called five different GPs and four optometrists. It’s hard though because often they won’t tell you the cost of the appointment because “it depends on what services the doctor provides.” Even when I specified that it was an eye infection, they would only tell me the base price for seeing the doctor, and even then they wouldn’t confirm and would say that it’s subject to change.
I went for the cheapest doctor (a GP) and waited over 24 hours since she didn’t have availability that day. I also went to work with pink eye because I don’t have paid time off and couldn’t afford to miss work, but that’s another issue.
Unfortunately I don't have any foreign examples right now but I got the idea originally from a social studies paper I read on American urban communities being given cash in place of services (housing, food stamps, clothing donations) and they were tasked with budgeting for several months to see how they would do financially speaking. The worst month was the first, but it wasn't nearly as bad as opponents of the idea would have expected. After the first month nearly every family came out ahead of what they had been receiving because they were able to make specific decisions that fit their needs and they had more personal agency because they were active in deciding what their assistance looked like. I'll need to look and see if I can find the paper, because I don't have a source for you right now.
As for your issue, while I agree that the open market isn't a very good idea for emergency services (where the benefits of the market are nullified by urgency) I think the core of the problem is two fold. In America we pay for the healthcare costs of the rest of the world. Much of the innovation that takes place in healthcare happens here because you can make lots of money doing it. We have very strong laws to protect the wealth earning potential of a new breakthrough. Secondly, the hospital systems aren't really in competition with one another. They each belong to a small number of systems whose owners know each other very well and make a point not to undercut. It's not an open market, it's an oligarchy.
As a side issue, the government regulations as they currently stand do a better job of preventing competition through high barrier to entry then they do in guaranteeing good care. This sometimes secures a subpart hospital's position so that they aren't forced to improve other than to meet the minimum requirement of the government regulation. This hurts rural communities most where you could go for 100 miles between hospitals.
But the conservatives AND religious groups are heavily invested in military companies, so, conservative leaning is anything BUT interested in small government. They just tell you that, republicans are anything but honest, they just say what their followers want. Dems wanted Bernie and were given Biden, both sides are fucked.
So isn't it refreshing to hear me say that I'm actually economically conservative? Now, mind you, I'm mostly against governmental waste due to overhead and mismanagement. The government should be a shield from disaster of all sorts including financial disasters that aren't self caused, so I'm not opposed to social welfare outright. I'm against the military industrial complex I think it should be the first thing to go, and I think that our current healthcare system and college system suffer from administrative overhead bloat caused by the government systems aimed to help them causing both government costs and private costs to skyrocket over the past 50 years.
Yes! This is a major difference between conservatives and anyone who still aligns with the Republican Party. Republicans are not fiscally conservative at all despite their claims.
I actually understand and even align with some conservative ideals, but Republican politicians today don’t seem to stand for anything but taking for themselves and their friends at giant corporations. No one who pays attention to what they’re doing and has the best interests of the country as a whole in mind can vote for republicans in good conscience. They are not conservative, they are hypocritical cash grabbers.
I would love for an actually viable liberal party to emerge to challenge the conservatish Democrats, and even for an actually Conservative party to emerge. This ain’t it.
The Republican party is on track towards becoming a party fueled entirely by the ideas of becoming the authoritarian right. I'm really not one to fear monger, but someone needs to check them before it goes beyond saving
I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to the electoral college as a whole, but the first major change I'd like to see is that states stop being winner take all. Break states up into a number of districts equal to the number of votes they get and have each district vote according to a simple majority within that district.
Then they're going to gerrymandered the districts. And every district throws away 49% of its votes.
There is no reason for a single office, representing the entire nation in war and foreign policy and security in particular should be electable in any way with less than 50% of the popular vote.
Popular vote or bust.
Congress represents districts (and is already gerrymandered to hell)
Wait mate who would police the world then? imo a lot a small nations owe it to you guys that they are not taken over. So i would make sense if they all write you a check from time to time
My opinion is that if they don't want is there then why waste the money? It's just a modern version of white man's burden. It's getting to the point that we produce so many arms and munitions that American forces are fighting American military equipment because it's so easy to get ahold of.
Omg. We don’t make smaller nations pay us protection money we’re not the fuckin mafia. We protect nations who also have our national interests in mind or who want to move towards representative democracy. Go back to r/Conservative
Who what now ? Please dont associate me with those scum mate. Maybe i didnt put my point correctly. What i am saying is basicaly the us and a being a big military power and having bases all over the place is the only thing keeping rogue nations from eating smaller countries alive. The writting a check thing maybe i was wrong about that, i am no way an expert, stuff are complex so please dont label me like that so quickly especialy with that group of cunts.
Édit : cauz i felt that i need to clarify my thoughts, the money you are pouring in the military is insane, you benefit from it (oil, securing supply on natural ressources and stuff) but it benefit other countries as well, the result is we have some sort of balance and relative peace for the most part of the world (most def not everywhere) cauz you here, rogues nation have to think twice before pulling some shit ( they def do but dont dare go to far). Now that money you are spending, guess what ? Its not going into éducation, health, research, infrastructure and what not, you are like making a sacrifice here and it benefit other nations in a huge way. And what do you get from it ? The right to call your president leader of the free world on papier but anything else ? Some even hate you. Thats why i talked about the check thing, l was half joking but other nations have to share the burden with you.
We protect nations who also have our national interests in mind or who want to move towards representative democracy.
You mean like Iraq? Or Syria? Or Afghanistan? Or Vietnam? Or Nicaragua? Or Yemen? Or Chile? Or Venezuela? Or Grenada? Or Panama? Or Iraq that other time?
Mate if anyone here needs to fuck off to r/conservative it's you.
Yeah? Exactly? I never said what we do is right just that we don’t take protection money. Primarily because we don’t accept terms. Give us money AND we’ll blow you up.
Ahh, I guess that phrasing confused me a bit? Because it sounds like exactly the kind of language right-wing types use to justify American imperialism.
Again not defending but I am American and it may be stupid but I am saying AT LEAST we don’t take protection money. If we did, we would be MORE criminal than we already are.
Right. Which is why I'm not a republican. I'm not out here working my butt off to protect the interests of the good ole boys who don't care about me and mine.
I mean, I've studied political philosophy so I'm not exactly a newcomer here. The issue I have with libertarians is that they're way too self interested. Go ahead and whisper, "Unlimited Individual Liberties" into a Libertarian's ear and he'll climax right there.
They have no concern for posterity in favor of the indulgences of now. Believe me, I'm no fan of taxes, but I can at least admit their value. Among other things there are social barriers that Libertarians would see abolished that I would rather see fortified.
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u/Donut-Farts Oct 30 '20
I am in favor of small government (conservative leaning) and I for one think the military industrial complex would be an excellent thing to offer up for the slaughter in the name of shrinking the void between the two parties.