Fox News on Federal Funding for Games

[HappySqurriel]

richardhutnik said:

HappySqurriel said:

When the government gives tax credits or subsidies to a particular industry what they’re really doing is acknowledging that the business environment they have built within their country is having a punitive effect on business; and correcting this for a handful of well-connected businesses or industries. It would make far more sense to eliminate these and to give everyone a lower tax rate, and to stop playing favourites; but that will probably never happen in the United States

And this is arguably worse than a situation where the NEA gives out small grants to videogame makers to produce content for schools that could prove to more effective at educating kids.  Of course, one can end up tweaking the systems so states and local school districts have greater say into what is funded, and have it so the makers can either compete for the funds or they can collectively pool funds.  The main argument involving the NEA here is that it would be beneficial to have market input into what is going on, rather than merely some beurocrats picking what should be used.  The bringing in Call of Duty, Mario, and other videogames that have NOTHING to do with NEA funding, turns what should be informational, into an agenda piece.  And to say, "Well Fox and Friends" isn't under Fox news department is nonsense, because the Fox News network is supposed to be a NEWS network.  In short, Fox News does an incredible injustice to actually attempting to provide useful information to decide, and instead, engages in spin that shows a near total breach of professionalism.  And, if you can't see this here, then you have a pro-Fox News bias.  Note: You here is meant as a "if the shoe fits..." and isn't directed, without distinction, at HappySquirrel.

As I said earlier, it actually makes sense for schools to stop wasting money and to use that "saved" money to spend on infastructure; which could include computers and educational videogames.

As a simple demonstration of how meaningful this would be ... New York city has 700 teachers who are being paid not to teach because of how awful these teachers are. As a rough estimate, salary and benefits included this works out to being roughly $50 to $100 Million in waste every year. If you assume $2,500 for the capital costs of a computer including all software, these 700 teachers translate into 20,000 to 40,000 computers that could be put into schools every year; if you assume that each computer has a 5 year life, this means that the school board is paying for 700 shitty teachers rather than 100,000 to 200,000 computers (1 computer for every 5 to 10 students).