US Politics |OT|

[the-pi-guy]

the-pi-guy said:

NYPost claims it was for "roughly" 30 tables, so roughly ~$8000 per table. 

A waste sure.

the-pi-guy said:

BFR said:

Here's another option for them:

PLUSPLUS

Now they can charge their devices while eating lunch.

Then it starts a fire, burns down the nearest buildings, causing 100's of millions in damage. Now everyone's wondering why we didn't go for a higher quality option. 

the-pi-guy said:

 

Pretty much every private company spends "unnecessary" money on extraneous employee benefits, and stuff for the company that probably isn't 100% necessary.

Companies spend plenty of money on furniture, kitchenware, exercise rooms. Some of these things can help keep employees happy, while they're at their job. 

Maybe it saves them money through employee retention. 

BFR said:

Bottom line: Does the CDC even need "powered" picnic tables to begin with - just so they can charge their devices while they eat lunch?

Like I said earlier, why can't those employees charge their devices at their desks? That's where they sit for most of the day anyway.

Maybe employees want flexibility so that they can work outside during the day, and not be stuck at their desks? 

Maybe it also helps employees who want to work a little bit later in the day. 

Maybe it helps them conduct business meetings. Even private companies spend a lot of money for that kind of thing.

zorg1000 said:

This is what I find funny about the “fiscal responsibility” people, the federal government had about $6.8 trillion in outlays for fiscal year 2024 and their solution is to nickel and dime on a handful of projects that combined make up less than a percent of the budget.

Sure, you can find examples of overspending on specific things or spending on dumb things but about 65% of federal outlays come from defense, healthcare, social security & interest. Add in things like infrastructure, education, housing, environment, disaster relief, nutrition assistance, etc. and you’re now close to the entire budget with none of those categories being a popular thing to make cuts to.

You can nickel and dime all these small projects but the end result is outlays go from something like $6.8t to $6.75t, mission accomplished!

Exactly.

Rand Paul, as a senator should hopefully have a better idea of government spending than most people.

Yet his demonstration of how wasteful government is, feels like such a stretch, it doesn't feel particularly convincing. 

the-pi-guy said:

BFR said:

"Pretty much every private company spends "unnecessary" money on extraneous employee benefits"

     We are talking about the federal gov't spending our tax dollars wastefully, not about private company wasteful spending.

I already did say the money was wasteful. I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm just saying we can talk about the other layers to this. 

But I'll go even further and say, being able to "waste" money is kind of an important good part of government. Being able to invest in helpful technologies that private industry wouldn't because they're not profitable is important. We wouldn't have space exploration without it. SpaceX wouldn't exist without NASA existing. 

The vast majority of space firsts were done by government programs.

Being able to invest in green technologies, is an important government responsibility right now. 

These are my 4 posts about the picnic tables.  

Never suggested they were a good purchase. Made a joke about them, but mostly just suggested that maybe it wasn't as bad of a purchase as it might look. Especially without more information. 

Having a nuanced take on things isn't hypocrisy. 

Last edited by the-pi-guy - 4 days ago