$447 bil

[101lifts2]

Originally Posted by Smittie61984

.....Stealth Helicopters and nice stuff like that is necesarry for the military. We need to be top dogs even nif right now there isn't a threat from a major country.

That is simply propaganda you have been poisoned to believe.

If we would simply quit constantly fucking with other countries in the name our "oil interests" we would not need to spend trillons of dollars overseas that WE DON'T FUCKING HAVE.

[RACER X]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

.

And I am sorry to disappoint the armchair rich people in here, who think it is macho to defend rich people or something, but higher taxes on the rich is a good idea IMO. Th.

qualify rich please.

and rich being based on yrly income, not net worth.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by RACER X

qualify rich please.

and rich being based on yrly income, not net worth.

Doesn't matter, what matters is that they got tax cuts several years ago, with no guarantee that those cuts would be permanent. Now "they" are crying like a baby, acting all suprised that anyone would even CONSIDER raising taxes, when in fact they were higher years ago.

Doesn't matter what group of people you take more money from, rich or poor or middle class, they will always protest it. What else is new?

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Smittie61984

Computers and Chemistry labs. Fair enough. I'm curious how much we blow on nice athletic fields and gymnasiums. Want to play sports? Go join some private team somewhere else. Watching my local news this morning I noticed some wannabe news man featuring some high school. The gym these high schoolers were using is nicer than the gym I pay membership for. Not necesarry one bit.

Stealth Helicopters and nice stuff like that is necesarry for the military. We need to be top dogs even nif right now there isn't a threat from a major country.

Yeah, because every small town in America is going to have private gyms, much less private football fields, indoor basketball courts, pools, etc.

Athletics is simply a necessary thing in the develoment of any kid that will grow up to be worth a shit. And unless you totally transform schools into some kind of military boot-camp or Buddhist monk style environment where you FORCE kids to perform martial arts, running, bodyweight exercises, and other things that don't require physical facilities, you will need to spend money on facilities for SPORTS.

[shmike]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Yeah, because every small town in America is going to have private gyms, much less private football fields, indoor basketball courts, pools, etc.

Athletics is simply a necessary thing in the develoment of any kid that will grow up to be worth a shit. And unless you totally transform schools into some kind of military boot-camp or Buddhist monk style environment where you FORCE kids to perform martial arts, running, bodyweight exercises, and other things that don't require physical facilities, you will need to spend money on facilities for SPORTS.

Word.

At he collegiate level, those giant gyms/fields/stadiums are a SOURCE of revenue not a drain on it.

At the local level, there are many benefits to the community outside of the Friday night games to having a those facilities.

Sorry that you got picked last for kickball, smittie, but sports are a very necessary part of coming of age.

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by Razor

Aside from your engineer friends (which I agree are pretty useless as leaders/managers of anything other than construction/research type projects), officers, not just Captains are leading/managing people from the day after they pin on their shiny little butter bars. Young LT's dont just spend several years learning their job, although if they are smart, they latch on to experienced NCOs/SNCOs and learn as fast and as much as they can...but wait, I digress... Ah yes, most young LT's step immediately into a job leading (or managing if you prefer) anywhere from a dozen to more than a hundred. This experience leading puts them in position to actually be squadron commanders by the time they are "just Captains".

Pilots, hmm... I'm not a big fan of them in general (because a lot can be real dick-heads, but I guess that can be said about us all at times) but one thing you have to give them credit for is that about 99% of them possess the personality traits that make good leaders. They are mostly type A people that dont hesitate to make decisions when they need making. Granted most pilot training can take up to 2 years, but that training is not just how to fly a plane, hell you could teach anybody to be a rudder-monkey in less than 6 months. A majority of that training is further teaching them how to be good/effective/responsible leaders, from how to manage (that word again) a crew (of a dozen people or more) to planning a mission that involves hundreds of people that they have the lead on. B ut what about those single-seat fighter pricks you ask? Every fighter that I can think of flys in multi-ship formations, they dont just say "Hey, lets meet up somewhere up there and fly around together"... Formations have leaders and are made up of elements that each have leaders, even in training...

Not sure how much you actually know about Combat Controllers, PJs or other tough fuckers in the Air Force (there are actually quite a few, STS/Combat Weather-no joke/TAC-Ps)... Combat Controllers arent necessarily leaders (I'm not saying that they aren't good at what they do or arent able to make tough decisions) but usually a CCT or TAC-P is embedded with other units and calls in strikes on what he is told to call in strikes on. PJs usually operate in 5-6 man teams with one CRO (Combat Rescue Officer) usually a LT or young Captain (definate leadership there, wont argue), a Team Lead (usually a SNCO) and 3 or 4 other young GAs that are there to support and do what they are supposed to. Are they any less bad-ass? Not at all, I actually have a little under 2 dozen of them here under my command (fucking scary thought that the AF has resorted to me) and they are straight up the next-best-thing-to-supermen...

I'm not even going to get into the whole pay discussion other than to say this:
- I didn't join to make a bunch of money and get rich, none of us did. I have my own reasons just like everyone that has ever signed their name on the line, raised their hand and took that oath.
- I make decent money, I wont lie. Its allows me (when I'm home) and the wife to be comfortable and enjoy some of the things we like.
- Do I make enough? I feel I am paid decent for what I've done. I do think there are some folks out there doing some shit that should be paid a whole lot more.


And for anyone that thinks the military gets paid too much, well I cant speak for everyone else, but fuck you very much and I would personally like to thank you all for paying for CHIs new house (tho its a rental), her new furniture (new to us, old shit from a thrift store), oh and I guess for making my truck payment...

I'm done rambling now, back to my nice vacation in the Med... Mythos and pitas...

Good post. I just spit out "combat air controller" without knowing their exact team position/structure...... I just assumed that one of "those" people in that MOS would have a team lead responsibility.

In terms of "deserving" money, I do believe that military people are more deserving of money than plenty other fields, such as the average banking geek, certain medical technicians, many lawyers, etc. The difficult thing is that, like I mentioned before, you can't make a direct comparison between military and civilian. Maybe that overpaid banking geek who only works 38-40 hours a week is actually "suffering" from a boring, unfulfilling job, while his buddy in the military feels that his job is exciting and rewarding, due to unique aspects of the military that can't be replicated in the civilian world.

I would also like to point out that, while a teacher does not make any life-or-death decisions, they DO need to use leadership skills, motivational skills, persuasion skills, etc......IF they are self-motivated and serious about their job of not only giving knowledge to kids, but inspiring them, which is a very difficult thing to do. That's a pretty big IF, and there is a HUGE variance between shitty teachers and great teachers. I don't believe school leadership does a good job of evaluating teachers either.

[RACER X]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Doesn't matter, what matters is that they got tax cuts several years ago, with no guarantee that those cuts would be permanent. Now "they" are crying like a baby, acting all suprised that anyone would even CONSIDER raising taxes, when in fact they were higher years ago.

Doesn't matter what group of people you take more money from, rich or poor or middle class, they will always protest it. What else is new?

if you tax the rich more, you should tax "the poor" the same........

[Razor]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

I would also like to point out that, while a teacher does not make any life-or-death decisions, they DO need to use leadership skills, motivational skills, persuasion skills, etc......IF they are self-motivated and serious about their job of not only giving knowledge to kids, but inspiring them, which is a very difficult thing to do. That's a pretty big IF, and there is a HUGE variance between shitty teachers and great teachers. I don't believe school leadership does a good job of evaluating teachers either.

Dont disagree with you one bit, those are all very important traits/skills for teachers to have/use... although I prefer education thru fear and intimidation...

[Homeslice]

Originally Posted by RACER X

if you tax the rich more, you should tax "the poor" the same........

I don't believe that's ever happened in our country's history, since we've always had a progressive tax curve IIRC.

Tax the poor enough, and they won't be able to participate in the consumer economy, which is 2/3 of our GDP

[Smittie61984]

Originally Posted by Homeslice

Athletics is simply a necessary thing in the develoment of any kid that will grow up to be worth a shit.

I could see it for the primary and even middle schools. High schools? The lazy ass fat ass kids are are always going to be lazy ass fatass kids are done with sports by high school. High School should be pure academia. You go in in the morning and learn about English, math, science, etc. Things that'll help you get through college and life. Why waste it on sports with fancy stadiums and equipment?

There are also tons of academic style classes that could go too. An example is high school anatomy. The people interested in anatomy (such as future doctors, nurses, vets, etc) will learn that in college. Doctors won't even learn anatomy until they graduate with their bachelors and get into med school. Why waste paying a teacher to teach something people won't use and won't transfer over to college?

I could also go on about the media programs of the school. They spend a few thousand for a nice camera so 10 students can run the "student news" in the morning. Then the fancy Imacs to put the crap together aren't cheap either.

There are tons of waste in school that can be cut. But that would also cut teacher jobs (though potentially increase pay for others) which the NEA would never ever permit. Which the NEA has never given one shit about students anyways.