That is clearly not true.
We also give massive tax breaks to corporations that then don’t do the things for which the breaks were given — e.g. Foxconn in WI. Build a chip plant? Nah we’re good.
The only thing that matters
Submitted 11 months ago by STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world to aboringdystopia@lemmy.world
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/80d24de2-d128-44b2-b862-b0fb8c95f6bc.jpeg
Comments
satanmat@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Mossheart@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
Consequences for not fulfilling our end of the deal? Nah, we’re good there too.
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Let’s be aware, were not even giving our troops proper armor and helmets vs IEDs, nor are we taking care of vet who lost their minds (and body parts) fighting for freedom. Instead, were cutting fat checks to Lockheed Martin for experimental tanks with active camouflage, or planes that are way too expensive and don’t work very well.
So we’re not just spending tax dollars on the military, we’re spending it badly on the military, and then cheating our soldiers of their benefits (who we funnel from the poor who have no other opportunities).
Joining the armed forces will ruin your life, unless you personally know a governor or senator who will vouch for your character. And then still you have to get past senior officers who want to ruin you.
Also every year in the service, roll a D20. On a 1 you’re either dead or too shot up / blown up to have a quality of life. You get to live the rest of your life a shell of who you once were.
Counter-recruitment writes itself.
chaogomu@kbin.social 11 months ago
Don't forget the "fast attack" ships that cost twice what they were bid at, and have hulls that crack when you exceed a slow crawl.
IHadTwoCows@lemm.ee 11 months ago
[deleted]uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
Well, yeah. The US military fights for the interests of its plutocrats, not for freedom. In the 1920s the whole red scare was used to push freedom, specifically the freedom of property rights (that is, for rich men to own everything) and the freedom to starve from poverty.
Cringe2793@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Wait active camo exists?
uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 months ago
ADAPTIV ( on Wikipedia ) is one of the current projects on active camouflage.
They’re kinda cool when we don’t think that ultimately these technologies are used to kill people and take their stuff.l
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Is this an old tweet? This year alone $1.2 trillion was passed in spending on infrastructure at the federal level.
flipht@kbin.social 11 months ago
We have backlogged projects, let alone maintenance on existing infrastructure, not even getting to the costs of upgrading ancient infrastructure - a lot of municipalities still use clay pipes.
Right now deferred maintenance is roughly a trillion dollars.
Telodzrum@lemmy.world 11 months ago
IDK about where you live, but I travel a lot for work and in my area and the places I travel there is a ton of work being done that has started in the last few months. If you want to ignore reality and wallow in your memes, I won’t stop you; but, you’re wrong.
Dagwood222@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Except the US hasn’t been spending on infrastructure for a long time. Obama wanted a similar sum and that was almost a decade ago. We’re not improving, we’re barely maintaining.
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s because infrastructure improvements have to be completed using taxes from the rich and corporations.
Soggy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Washington State ferries are dropping like flies, and the condition of many of our bridges is shocking. We aren’t even maintaining.
Pissnpink@feddit.uk 11 months ago
You’re right, investment in infrastructure has rebounded, but its easy to ignore the hard fought battles and just be cynical. But also things aren’t perfect and our priorities can be better. For me that’s investments in health care for all and making higher ed cheaper.
Two years ago, President Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (“BIL”) into law. The BIL directs $1.2 trillion of federal funds towards transportation, energy, and climate infrastructure projects, most of which is distributed via state and local governments
SaakoPaahtaa@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Eh sorry buddy on lemmy we hate the USA and love China. Also blame everything on capitalism, even - and especially - if it has nothing to do with it
tswiftchair@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Having legitimate criticisms of the country you live in
wHy Do YoU hAtE aMeRiCa?!?!
Zoboomafoo@lemmy.world 11 months ago
US Republican* politcians
LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Not sure why you’re getting down-voted:
npr.org/…/biden-signs-1t-bipartisan-infrastructur…
And
npr.org/…/senate-republican-votes-infrastructure-…
In the Senate, 100% of Party A voted for it. Party B saw 38% of their members vote for it and 62% voted against it.
axios.com/…/house-republicans-votes-infrastructur…
In the House, Party A saw nearly all their members vote to pass the bill with the opposers wanting a bigger investment in infrastructure than what was offered.
Party B saw 100s of their members vote against it while 19 voted for. Most of those opposed said it was not worth the cost.
But yeah, Party A = Party B /s
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
If they aren’t at the very least endorsed by the DSA, odds are that they’ll also participate in austerity bs.
HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
It feels like one of the few positive outcomes of the Cold War was the Sputnik shock.
The public and politicians suddenly got very worried about actual scientific competitiveness and winning a competitive race on something other than bombs.
I wish we’d have a similar moment when it came to China and infrastructure.
This is a country that was built by railroads. Even today, you can see the strings of towns spaced to the size of a steam locomotive’s water capacity. But what do we see from that legacy now? The Acela, an effort that would barely be competitive in the 1970s, on a minimal set of routes. Meanwhile, the Chinese are laughing from the windows of their 300kph trains.
(Yes, I’m aware that American freight rail is efficient and impressive, but somehow almost every other industrialized country has figured this one out)
Cassus@lemm.ee 11 months ago
But what do we see from that legacy now?
It bothers me so much. I wanted to pay for a friend’s ticket to visit us. By train, it was $200, a 16hr trip, of which 2/3rds was by bus thanks to Amtrack’s garbage infrastructure/system.
By plane for the same trip, it was a $180, 2hr direct flight.
It’s so god damn ass backwards. Trains produce a fraction of the emissions of planes, so why are we ok with trains being uncompetitive?
zaphod@feddit.de 11 months ago
politicians suddenly got very worried about actual scientific competitiveness and winning a competitive race on something other than bombs.
They just feared possible military applications and didn’t want to fall behind.
psmgx@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Aye. Was a dick wagging competition, but the subtext was “we can do this with ICBMs and their countermeasures”.
HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org 11 months ago
Point completely taken, but they at least managed to provide some window-dressing that they were advancing the state of science and knowledge.
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Tbf, the US has to spend 10$ for every one China spends to be able to project to our allies that China threatens geopolitically, and that cost gap is what most people talk about when they worry about China pulling ahead.
The other kind of person are racists who are still upset that China might have a big influential economy, like it has had since the dawn of human civilization.
100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 11 months ago
In 1982, a Chinese delegation reached Turin for a joint venture. FIAT, the major Italian car maker (with a long and nefarious history), answered that in China there were no roads, and bicycles crowded the few there were.
The delegation went to Munich, signed a deal with Volkswagen and that’s the story of how German car makers gained a foothold in the Chinese market.
ours@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And now, because German auto-makers dragged their feet transitioning to electric cars, VW is bleeding market share in China.
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Here in the US, the rail system is privately owned and barely maintained. Employees responsible for identifying problems with sections of rail are regularly intimidated and fired for pointing out maintenance issues that could (and do) cause derailments.
In perfect world, we would have high speed rail across the US and even regionally, but that is not the world we live in.
jeremyparker@programming.dev 11 months ago
There was that Big News Derailment a while back - but what they didn’t bother telling us at the time was that there are derailments on like a daily basis. It’s incredibly common. They’re not always hugely toxic, but is that required for us to care?
thisisawayoflife@lemmy.world 11 months ago
There was a derailment less than a 1/4 mile from my parents house about 30 years ago. Very low speed derailment. Still came off the rails. Was crazy to see up close, and it was there for at least 6 months to a year.
Sibbo@sopuli.xyz 11 months ago
If you can’t beat them with words, beat them with guns
uphillbothways@kbin.social 11 months ago
'What do you mean you joined a gun club?'
- grabs barrel and swings violently *
PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Probably because everyone is in it for short term gains and to gain something for themselves. If politicians actually cared about the advancement of the human race, (in any way), they’d join each other towards bulling common goals until no common goals are left.
TheSanSabaSongbird@lemdro.id 11 months ago
Somebody should probably mention the fact that there are storm clouds a-brewing on China’s economic horizon as well. And that’s not to mention their little demography problem.
I’m not bashing China, I just want to provide a little perspective.
skozzii@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
That’s not true, they also defund the IRS and give their rich buddies tax cuts.
TrickDacy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
This is mostly Republicans
iterable@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
You know that guy he was a famous war general and then president who like decades ago warned everyone about the military industrial complex…yup we had no warnings to stop it… nope
AbsoluteChicagoDog@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Fuck China. Fuck the CCP. But damn if they don’t get shit done.
AnokLola@lemm.ee 11 months ago
The USA knows history so well.
TimewornTraveler@lemm.ee 11 months ago
?
Adubya@lemmy.world 11 months ago
We need to do better but I’m pretty certain we are not being competitively challenged by China’s Hukou system & as for infrastructure and local government investing in crazy growth schemes it is pretty rampant in the US as well.
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Most infrastructure is privatized in the US, with roads being a notable exception. Infrastructure investment doesn’t mean a lot when that investment is to a for-profit company in which their only means of profit is new infrastructure. The most expensive (and therefore profitable) type of infrastructure with the lowest maintenance cost use fossil fuels.
havokdj@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Isn’t it obvious? It’s because the US will act as the “world’s police” as a cover to steal countries’ oil, that’s how the US competes with China.
creditCrazy@lemmy.world 11 months ago
To be fair at least we can make buildings stand for more than just a year
Sagifurius@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Maybe, just throwing this out there, empires ruled by a democratically(ish) elected leader of the country running the empire don’t work so well, they work better with actual emperors, and maybe that’s why fascism is coming round again.
CitizenKong@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Actually, no. The economic track record of dictators is pretty abysimal (conservative policies in general too). Even China falters because Winnie Pooh has turned it into his personal dictatorship (among other things).
Fades@lemmy.world 11 months ago
China’s econ has fallen and is like @ 65% compared to the us economy which is doing just about the best of the G7 countries in unemployment and inflation
Pons_Aelius@kbin.social 11 months ago
Which means nothing if the US does not spend the money on their citizens.
Fades@lemmy.world 11 months ago
And? You think China does??? That’s not what the post is about and isn’t related to what I’m talking about but go off I guess
IHadTwoCows@lemm.ee 11 months ago
[deleted]Fades@lemmy.world 11 months ago
to no avail
It’s no conspiracy, just look at the shift in China-US relations just recently. But no, it must just be propaganda!
Fuckin yawn
psycho_driver@lemmy.world 11 months ago
That’s so we can watch them spend trillions upgrading their infrastructure over decades only to bomb their shiny new infrastructure into oblivion whilst Ralph Wigginsing them (pointing our finger and going HA HAAA).
Zehzin@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Your didn’t even get the character right.
chaogomu@kbin.social 11 months ago
Ralph Wigginsing
So we can eated the purple berries? I hear they taste like burning.
Ep1cFac3pa1m@lemmy.world 11 months ago
We only have 2 major political parties, and one of them has decided science and learning are evil…and like half the country votes for them. We’re completely fucked.
Land_Strider@lemmy.world 11 months ago
Last 20 years’ Turkey: First time?
PhlubbaDubba@lemm.ee 11 months ago
I mean tbf Erdogan mostly lost his shit after it became obvious that being Turkey but not laicite doesn’t magically make the cypress question go away during accession negotiations.
That one ultimately bit the Cypress Turks in the but though, now they’re starting to worry about Turkey annexing them because of Erdogan.
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 11 months ago
You’re so right.
This is only a Republican problem.
beg@lemmy.world 11 months ago
So not a real democracy then