Political Discussions
memo to GOP: yes, science spending does create jobs
Posted by gfish3000 • 3/01/09 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: budgets, deficits, government spending, political parties, politics, programs, Republicans, science
So after eight years in charge and adding trillions of dollars to the national debt, Republicans wants to finally start advocating financial responsibility. How? By assaulting less than $143 million in science projects, $140 million of those dedicated to making sure volcanoes in Montana, Washington, Alaska and *shudder* the monster underneath Yellowstone National Park won't cause catastrophic damage to the nation.
A little hypocritical, isn't it? But there's more to it than that. Scientific research creates jobs because new ways of doing things and new knowledge can help revolutionize the way business is done and create a vast amount of jobs like the internet:
worldofweirdthings.com/2009/03/01/why-yes-science-does-equal-jobs/
Or science can come up with new products to sell for a profit, thus boosting the economy. Seriously, picking on science budgets that aren't even rounding errors in a spreadsheet compared to the $5 trillion worth of loans they nationalized and $700 billion they gave to banks, especially when those millions can save lives and generate jobs, is just plain ridiculous.
User Comments
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Just as a little reality check.
"Advance warning" if the yellowstone supervolcano erups. Will be crucial to ensure that....... nope.. won't do a damn bit of good. -
And is the SWINE ODOR Study included in those 143 million?
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Not really. Then again considering how many farms there are in America raising pigs for consumption, you might want to figure out how to manage the air pollution from pigs and their waste. A random name for a science project is meaningless until you read what the project actually does. Of course if you'd like your pork chops polluted...
And yes, advance warning if the Yellowstone volcano starts stirring would give several months to try and prepare for the onslaught and start the evacuation process and supply routes. But of course if you'd rather be buried under a giant ash cloud, that's your business. -
Several MONTHS???
How about looking at the facts, They are lucky to be able to predict DAYS, most volcano eruptions can only be predicted within hours.
So no, it wouldn't do anything. Especially not since you would have to evacuate the entire northwest midwest, bible belt, and oh yeah, you would have no bread basket.
Even if they did know, they wouldn't say anything. It would cause panic, and no benefit.
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The GOP likes to pick things that sound funny like "volcano monitoring" to pretend to want to do something about waste. It's just a game. -
"Your modern ways frighten and confuse me." — The GOP
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Lol,
The democrats won this election primarily on the hate of Bush. And now they are doing everything they can to fuel that anger.
Only question is, is it because they need it to win the election. Or is it to distract from the mental midget in the whitehouse..-
Disagree with his policies but to accuse him of being stupid is a tactic of the fool. -
I guess most democrats are fools then, since that was their standard mantra about Bush.
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CSI writes, "The democrats won this election primarily on the hate of Bush." Many conservatives believe that, but I think they're missing the bigger picture. One simple metric is to compare Obama's numbers last fall with the state of the economy. People seemed to trust Democrats more with an economic crisis of this kind. Even that, though, is too simple. If the GOP wants to blame Bush for their losses, that will be good for the Democrats. I would suggest, however, that a great deal more happened in this country. -
The numbers last fall coincided with the presidential race yes, but completely backwards from what you are saying.
The stock market was up when McCain gained, and down when Obama's lead increased.
And it tanked the morning after the election. -
One of your many logical fallacies is to conflate the market with the people. I was referring to voters worried about their jobs and mortgages. You are referring to skittish investors. There is a relationship between the two. They are not opposites. But neither are they coterminous.
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OOOH... a sesquipedalian. Is that your way of trying to sound important? Equal or "the same" works too you know.
And if you want to propose that the personal finances of people are separated from the market. Maybe you need to think again.
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I wouldn't even get involved in these arguments. The GOP has got absolutely nothing positive to offer in the way of an economic stimulus plan. They never offered up an alternative, even though they had a president in office until January 20th. The only people offering a strategy are in the White House and the majority of the House and Senate. So what does the GOP do? Pick at little things, little cultural issues they had in the previous decade. They try to make this the whole debate and distract from what the big picture is.
As far as science itself goes, I think it's a mistake to look for applications right away in all areas. Pure science often yields results that have practical applications that no one foresaw. To get there, though, they have to make lots and lots of detours and overcome lots of disappointments. That's how science works. Even failed experiments are successes, because they eliminate what doesn't work.-
Wow. Facts just don't come into play with you do they???
FACTBOX - U.S. House Republican alternative stimulus proposal
uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE50R71P20090128
Smarter, Simpler Stimulus
republicanwhip.house.gov/Jobs/
It was all over the news, you should try reading them. -
I was referring to before the 20th for the most part. For after I could have added "credible." As for "all over the news," all I noticed was "No. No. No. No. No. No."
Of course, your counterargument does not address the substance of my comment. It merely does what I said the GOP strategy as a whole has done. Pick at the fringes and substitute that for substance. -
Well if you read something other than Leftist news like Politico, you would have heard other things than No no no..
And when they DON'T say flat out NO... they are "picking on the fringe"..
Oh well, Obamas Epic fail on this stimulus is going to be the best election boost the republican can ask for come 2012. -
Regarding your last remark, that is precisely the strategy of House Republicans. Personally, leaving their fate up to the economy and any missteps by the Democrats would be too passive a strategy for my taste, but what do I know?
Regarding your inaccurate characterization of Politico and other important leading media outlets in this country, well, we've done this before. Don't you get tired of it? -
Inaccurate.. lol,
THey are about as independent and neutral as Fox...
And no, I rarely get tired of it any more than you do of making your half baked claims about republicans. -
Your arguments just don't add up.
If they do believe that this stimulus package will fail, they you don't think that they should leave it up to the missteps of democrats.
But when they do what they can, argue against it. They are saying NO NO NO, and then that is wrong.
No no no, is the best thing they can do. They are voting for the right option, when the vote stands between Yes and No to a crappy plan. Then no is the correct approach.
And they can then rightly stand on that when we vote Obama out in 3 years and nine months. (but who's counting) -
"The democrats won this election primarily on the hate of Bush."
Hatred of Bushs' failed policies and corrupt administration.... yes.
"Well if you read something other than Leftist news like Politico, you would have heard other things than No no no.. "
Even right-wing propaganda channel Fox News is advertising the NO, NO, NO mantra without putting forth any substantial solutions to your economic problems.
"Oh well, Obamas Epic fail on this stimulus is going to be the best election boost the republican can ask for come 2012."
Or it works and the NO, NO, NO / ME, ME, ME Republicans find themselves as the minority for many years.
"They (Politico) are about as independent and neutral as Fox... "
Seriously brainwashed.
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wp
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Getting back on topic, a little science spending by the government in the 60s created ARPANET, which in turn became a small network for gov't computers. Then PARC Xerox came up with Ethernet, releasing it into the public domain. Finally (and I know I'm skipping a few steps here), Tim Berners Lee came up with the basic Web protocols.
So now we have personal computers, the Internet, and even the Web, and all the jobs that created. And as a result, we can have an argument about whether or not spending on science helps create jobs.-
Ok, but pig stink isn't going to become the new internet... just to make sure we still understand the basics here.
Science is as much a crapshoot as anything. THe government has also sponsored some Science that went nowhere. Let's not forget that either. -
Of course, some science projects went nowhere. That's part of science. It's also why government gets involved. It's easier for it to swallow the losses. If we had to rely only on entrepreneurs, we would miss out on a lot of things. A combination of state, nonprofit, and entrepreneurial funding is necessary.
What your repeated, but uncited reference to pigs has to do with any of this is still unclear to me. So is the basis of your criticism, unless I am simply supposed to trust your common sense. -
Don't forget that Al Gore introduced legislation that promoted the internet for public use.
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No you should do your own reading.
You can start here. caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2009/02/26/earmarks-a-necessary-evil/
Let's not forget Obamas "No Earmarks" Lies
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