[ExI] kiwis keeping it real

[spike at rainier66.com]

> On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat
Subject: Re: [ExI] kiwis keeping it real

 

On Mon, Jun 22, 2020 at 4:52 AM John Clark via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org <mailto:extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> > wrote:

25 years ago some physicist publicly testified before Congress and said the US shouldn't build the Superconducting Super Collider because the money could be spent in other ways …

 

>…Generally, "but we could better spend the money on X" is an invalid argument when discussing how something like Congress spends its money…It's like people think the money is tagged to only be spent on science (or whatever domain).  It never is… Adrian

 

 

Adrian I do thank you for that comment.  There is no “the money.”  All money is someone’s money.

 

There is a reason why I mention this.  We had a local bond measure which took 11 years to pass (it kept being rejected every 2 yrs) but the locals eventually voted for it.  It provided about 380 bucks to upgrade the schools and build several new structures for the high school.  I applied for and was selected for an oversight board tasked with watching the contractors and the school board, compare with the wording of the bond measure as it was written on the ballot and the voters accepted.

 

I am happy to report that the contractors are doing a marvelous job.

 

The difficulty is that with the pandemic… our needs very suddenly changed.  Now every meeting, eeeeevery damn meeting, during the public comments time, yahoos will get up and say, because of such and such, we need to spend THE MONEY on this and spend THE MONEY on that.  We aren’t allowed to interrupt the speaker but inside I am screaming THERE IS NO THE MONEY!  Our task is to review the plans, review the outcome, answer a simple question yes or no: Is this what the voters voted for?  Yes or no.

 

All of these proposals violate both the letter and the spirit of the bond measure.  We do not have the option of spending bond measure funds on anything besides what the voters chose.  It isn’t a big pile of money to be used for the current needs, there is no THE money.

 

If we could get people in general to realize this fact, the nature of political discourse would change for the better.

 

spike

 

 

 

 

 

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