Why more Americans Are not mad at the complete waste of our tax money is beyond me
For a billion dollars, other countries are successfully building entire transit systems, high speed rails, other infrastructure, or running massive welfare programs.
We should be getting so much more.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S
Basically stable since WWII, which is kind of nuts considering it's still only just below the level necessary for a World War, and on top of that real GDP per capita has increased, so this is a huge increase in taxation per capita over time even adjusted for inflation.
And yet with a much smaller budget the WPA and so on did more, which does quite imply that the problem is government efficiency rather than government revenue.
Exactly. Some have pegged me as a low-tax libertarian apparently, but I'm objectively not. I frequently vote for tax increases, because I think it's fine to support collective infrastructure.
What I don't like is being gaslit.
As an example, I voted in favor of the California High Speed Rail. To this day, I am desperate for a fast train between LA and San Francisco (despite no longer living in california, it would be mega useful for visits, since my company is in the bay and family in LA).
That was over ten years ago. At the time, the funding measure approved was supposed to fund the project.
The rail is still not built, and I recently read an article talking about a new ballot measure to 'fund high speed rail'. It's like... no... we were completely lied to. What happened to all that money? This is actually not okay. The citizens were completely misled as to how much that cost. Someone somewhere should be facing repercussions, yet if you so much as point this out, you'll be accused of being a member of the wrong party. God forbid
As it stands you can only lament the status quo, which appears to be a form of wrong-think at HN, a site for entrepreneurs and innovators...