Comment by cogman10
2 days ago
It's very often not a choice. But also, those rural areas are often the breadbaskets of the united states. Taking care of our farmers is important.
Trying to frame it as a choice also misses a lot. It technically is, but you have to recognize there's a huge cost in uprooting your entire life and moving to a new location.
We give our farmers absolutely insane subsidies already.
It is not the government’s job to “take care of” anybody.
Everything has a cost, staying has a cost, leaving has a cost. The question is how much should the public be taxed to pay for individuals suboptimal decision-making? Or conversely, why am I subsidizing some billionaires remote horse ranch to have daily Postal Service and an ambulance standing by?
Can I move to the wilds of Alaska and then demand the same level of service as New York City? No that would be ludicrous.
W.Australia has a land area three time that of Texas with the bulk of the 2.9 million in population clustered about the capital city Perth.
In the rest of the state there are volunteer Ambulance services subsidised by state and federal government and a fleet of Royal Flying Doctor air ambulances.
RFD(WA) comes in at ~ $80 million AUD / annum in state support (for better or worse - https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-24/rural-gp-slams-royal-... )
They assert to have a "value" to the state of $4.1 billion AUD over 30 years - https://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/wa/
Australia is also going bankrupt just slightly faster than the United States. Looks like deficit spending and debt levels are only trending the wrong direction there as well.
I am all for flight for life as we call it here, but that is different than saying we should have a network of ambulances across massive swabs of mostly empty terrain.
I am willing to hazard that the Australian airlift response is slower than your average ambulance response in Sydney.
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> It is not the government’s job to “take care of” anybody.
That is actually the only legitimate function of government.
Sweet, open the borders then. It's not the government's job to take care of that (we had government long before we had 21st century style closed borders, so it's definitely not a requirement of government). More people = more money coming in.
> It is not the government’s job to “take care of” anybody.
That is literally the only job of government. The entire reason we have a government is to serve the citizens in some fashion or another.
Even for most libertarians, they'll view the government in having a role resolving disputes. That is "taking care of" citizens by resolving conflicts.
Subsidizing farmers so citizens continue to have cheap and consistent access to food is a great thing. Right up there with providing clean drinking water, sewage services, and building roads.
I think what I’m saying is being misinterpreted. I should have been more clear. Everybody’s definition of “taken care of” is different.
The government needs to balance the interest of the public with the interest of the individual. It is not intended to “take care of “people regardless of their asks.
Otherwise, what if I am only “taken care of” if I have a beachside penthouse in Malibu and also a pony?
The government is not taking care of people if it allows the average expenditure per person to eclipse the average tax revenue per person. The economics need to be roughly sustainable at the national state and even rural area level.
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The farmers can go F themselves. US soybean industry destroyed by trump tariffs, all I see are news stories about the very same soybean farmers talking about voting for trump again despite the pain. Reap what you sow!