Post here about the thing our tax dollars are wasted on.

The Penny
It cost more than a penny, to mint a penny. In fact, it cost 1.5 cents to make a penny. How about we round up, or down to the nearest nickle. I'm fine with the lost penny in a round up, or down scenario going to the government. Or, i'm fine rounding the cost up to tyhe nearest nickle. The penny needs to go away. They say they are going to stop minting pennies in 2020, but I think they need to be removed from circulation all together.

Last year, each penny cost 1.5 cents to make -- about 50 percent more than its face value -- and all the pennies the U.S. Mint issued last year cost it $46 million. It’s the 11th year the cost to make a penny has been higher than its face value.

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I’d be fine with going to a cashless system. I rarely carry cash anymore and absolutely can’t stand having spare change in my pocket.

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I’d be fine with going to a cashless system. I rarely carry cash anymore and absolutely can’t stand having spare change in my pocket.

One would think that cash would be going away on it's own due to electronic transactions and credit cards.  The truth of the matter is the need for cash is growing to the point that FRB branches are increasing operating times to deal with the influx on cash.  

The question is why is the need increasing and not declining?  Who gets paid in cash?  Hmmm?

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

Another reason for legalization.

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There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

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"Why should I give information to you when all you want to do is find something wrong with it?"

Another reason for legalization.

Certainly illegal drug activity has a direct correlation with cash, but that is not the reason for the increase.  As weed gets legalized state by state the need for cash purchases should be declining.

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

This. We're continuing to sink billions upon billions into a fighter that makes pilots so disoriented that they puke in their helmets and is in many ways a step back from the rockstar F-16 it's replacing.

I would support removal of the penny, but the followup question is how badly consumer groups would muck everything up by demanding that all transactions be rounded up. Let's assume that the "compromise" solution is that all transactions are rounded up, and if the retailer has to give back a couple more cents than the register says to, the difference is taken back from sales tax. Now, how much is that lost sales tax costing the government, which will inevitably pass it on to us? Maybe municipalities raise sales tax rates, because they're probably the ones who will take the hit. Maybe it's states that do. Maybe property taxes get bumped a little, or vehicle registration fees go up. Who knows? The system, as it exists today, is not ready for life after the penny, because consumer groups will come in, sue the living crap out of everyone over the two cents that someone could lose on a given transaction and force a step back.

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There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

This. We're continuing to sink billions upon billions into a fighter that makes pilots so disoriented that they puke in their helmets and is in many ways a step back from the rockstar F-16 it's replacing.

I would support removal of the penny, but the followup question is how badly consumer groups would muck everything up by demanding that all transactions be rounded up. Let's assume that the "compromise" solution is that all transactions are rounded up, and if the retailer has to give back a couple more cents than the register says to, the difference is taken back from sales tax. Now, how much is that lost sales tax costing the government, which will inevitably pass it on to us? Maybe municipalities raise sales tax rates, because they're probably the ones who will take the hit. Maybe it's states that do. Maybe property taxes get bumped a little, or vehicle registration fees go up. Who knows? The system, as it exists today, is not ready for life after the penny, because consumer groups will come in, sue the living crap out of everyone over the two cents that someone could lose on a given transaction and force a step back.

.01 and .02 round down, .03 and .04 round up.  Only retail transactions would be affected.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

I’d be fine with going to a cashless system. I rarely carry cash anymore and absolutely can’t stand having spare change in my pocket.

One would think that cash would be going away on it's own due to electronic transactions and credit cards.  The truth of the matter is the need for cash is growing to the point that FRB branches are increasing operating times to deal with the influx on cash.  

The question is why is the need increasing and not declining?  Who gets paid in cash?  Hmmm?

Garage sales, Craig's List, and the strip club just to name a few.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

Garage sales, Craig's List, and the strip club just to name a few.

Oh, I wanna see you walk  into a strip club with your piggy bank ... and a hammer.

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There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

I think a lot of the defense spending is to keep the wheels spinning. Not like you can close it down, and then open it back up only when you need it. If you don't keep pushing the envelope (even failing), you are going to lose your edge in the arms sales race.

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[quote pid='1196590' dateline='1551718607']
There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

I think a lot of the defense spending is to keep the wheels spinning. Not like you can close it down, and then open it back up only when you need it. If you don't keep pushing the envelope (even failing), you are going to lose your edge in the arms sales race.
[/quote]

That's true, but the F-35 is not most defense spending.
Whoever suggested that going forward all service branches should be using the same airframe should have been laughed out of the room 30 years ago.
The complaint was that buying up new F-15, F-16, and F/A-18s to keep the lines going in case of war was a lot of money that could be better invested in a single "joint" strike fighter. Interesting theory but it's been obvious for a long time that there will be no savings at all and a significant backwards step in capabilities.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

Garage sales, Craig's List, and the strip club just to name a few.

Oh, I wanna see you walk  into a strip club with your piggy bank ... and a hammer.

---

There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

I think a lot of the defense spending is to keep the wheels spinning. Not like you can close it down, and then open it back up only when you need it. If you don't keep pushing the envelope (even failing), you are going to lose your edge in the arms sales race.

I was just answering the "who uses cash these days" question, and I take my hammer everywhere.

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“An empty vessel makes the loudest sound, so they that have the least wit are the greatest babblers.”. - Plato

Garage sales, Craig's List, and the strip club just to name a few.

Oh, I wanna see you walk  into a strip club with your piggy bank ... and a hammer.

---

There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

I think a lot of the defense spending is to keep the wheels spinning. Not like you can close it down, and then open it back up only when you need it. If you don't keep pushing the envelope (even failing), you are going to lose your edge in the arms sales race.

Sammy it is almost worth the warning...

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

If you aren't don't have one of those Florida fast passes (or whatever they call it), the Florida Toll collectors in Orlando mandate cash and so does the Skyway Bridge toll in St Pete. they don't want to do credit card for a $1 because they incur a cost for each credit card transaction. A lot of small business have a similar cash requirement for purchases less than $25 or so.

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One would think that cash would be going away on it's own due to electronic transactions and credit cards.  The truth of the matter is the need for cash is growing to the point that FRB branches are increasing operating times to deal with the influx on cash.  

The question is why is the need increasing and not declining?  Who gets paid in cash?  Hmmm?

Garage sales, Craig's List, and the strip club just to name a few.

Still missing the big one.  Under the table employment.

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Original Season Ticket Holder - Retired  1995 - 2020


At some point you just have to let go of what you thought should happen and live in what is happening.
 

We do exactly that with the rounding in Australia, therefore it must be a bad idea because #foreign.

Becoming less of a deal with how little cash is used these days.

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There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

This. We're continuing to sink billions upon billions into a fighter that makes pilots so disoriented that they puke in their helmets and is in many ways a step back from the rockstar F-16 it's replacing.

I would support removal of the penny, but the followup question is how badly consumer groups would muck everything up by demanding that all transactions be rounded up. Let's assume that the "compromise" solution is that all transactions are rounded up, and if the retailer has to give back a couple more cents than the register says to, the difference is taken back from sales tax. Now, how much is that lost sales tax costing the government, which will inevitably pass it on to us? Maybe municipalities raise sales tax rates, because they're probably the ones who will take the hit. Maybe it's states that do. Maybe property taxes get bumped a little, or vehicle registration fees go up. Who knows? The system, as it exists today, is not ready for life after the penny, because consumer groups will come in, sue the living crap out of everyone over the two cents that someone could lose on a given transaction and force a step back.

As someone that was directly involved with the program I can tell you that's a false allegation.  While I agree with MalibarJag that we way overspent on the F-35 when the F-22 is a much more superior jet (my opinion), the F-35 is actually going onto full production and is being delivered to the military.

The thing about this though is the topic of this thread is "Waste of Tax Payer Dollars".  I think that a much bigger waste than military spending (mandated by The Constitution) is the needless and useless waste of money spent on more "investigations" of "collusion" or now the term is "obstruction".  How much of our tax payer dollars are being spent on this?  Is it Congress's job to "investigate" or is their job to legislate and create laws?

Our national government has become a circus and it's not the current sitting President that is causing it, it's the current Congress.  The left is so intent on finding something to bring up impeachment proceedings and they are getting desperate.  All of the DOJ "investigations" have yielded nothing, so start another angle.  Rather than "collusion" it's now "corruption".

I've never seen such a deliberate, gross abuse of power and yet, the public doesn't bat an eye.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

Their roles are different and technologies a decade apart. I am very familiar with both and while the F-22 is quite the air superiority fighter, the F-35 is a true quarterback that can serve multiple roles from air-to-air, air-to-ground, close air support, electronic countermeasure, intel gathering, swarm control, battle space management, and integrated targetting with other air assets and ship assets. With such leading edge technologies, you are going to have issues. With that said, the F-35 has flown combat missions and is exceeding expectation in advanced testing, including defeating multiple F-22 and FA-18 superhornets. When its new software is online it will be even more robust. Here is something some may find interesting...

https://taskandpurpose.com/air-force-f35...g-exercise

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-...-red-flag/

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This. We're continuing to sink billions upon billions into a fighter that makes pilots so disoriented that they puke in their helmets and is in many ways a step back from the rockstar F-16 it's replacing.

I would support removal of the penny, but the followup question is how badly consumer groups would muck everything up by demanding that all transactions be rounded up. Let's assume that the "compromise" solution is that all transactions are rounded up, and if the retailer has to give back a couple more cents than the register says to, the difference is taken back from sales tax. Now, how much is that lost sales tax costing the government, which will inevitably pass it on to us? Maybe municipalities raise sales tax rates, because they're probably the ones who will take the hit. Maybe it's states that do. Maybe property taxes get bumped a little, or vehicle registration fees go up. Who knows? The system, as it exists today, is not ready for life after the penny, because consumer groups will come in, sue the living crap out of everyone over the two cents that someone could lose on a given transaction and force a step back.

As someone that was directly involved with the program I can tell you that's a false allegation.  While I agree with MalibarJag that we way overspent on the F-35 when the F-22 is a much more superior jet (my opinion), the F-35 is actually going onto full production and is being delivered to the military.

The thing about this though is the topic of this thread is "Waste of Tax Payer Dollars".  I think that a much bigger waste than military spending (mandated by The Constitution) is the needless and useless waste of money spent on more "investigations" of "collusion" or now the term is "obstruction".  How much of our tax payer dollars are being spent on this?  Is it Congress's job to "investigate" or is their job to legislate and create laws?

Our national government has become a circus and it's not the current sitting President that is causing it, it's the current Congress.  The left is so intent on finding something to bring up impeachment proceedings and they are getting desperate.  All of the DOJ "investigations" have yielded nothing, so start another angle.  Rather than "collusion" it's now "corruption".

I've never seen such a deliberate, gross abuse of power and yet, the public doesn't bat an eye.

That's just not credible to me, dude.
First of all the Constitution doesn't work unless the different officers of the Constitution hold each other accountable. And yes that means lots of money spent on investigations whenever something new or questionable is occurring. If you don't like that, go live in a dictatorship. The total that we've spent on this investigation is less than one F-35.
I could buy that somehow the F-35 program will end up providing good value to us. I've already said I don't think it will, but let's leave that aside.

You don't get to invoke the fact that defense spending is mandated by the Constitution in favor of any and all defense spending.  There is a limit. At some point everyone must be willing to say "you know, we've spent enough on defense." Even if the point that I'm willing to say that comes earlier than the point that you're willing to say that, you don't get to claim that you're following the Constitution better than me just for that reason. That's just some bubblegum applesauce nonsense that the sons of men who work for defense contractors say to each other to make themselves feel better about the $22 trillion debt that they've contributed to the in this country.

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My fellow southpaw Mark Brunell will probably always be my favorite Jaguar.

There are so many ways in which the US government wastes taxpayer dollars that making such a list is a waste of message board space. 

The $46M wasted on making pennies (I agree that it's a waste) is insignificant compared the F-35 program. We've spent hundred of billions of dollars for a fighter jet that still isn't working while the US cancelled production on by far the best fighter jet ever made (the F-22). In perspective that's about 10,000 years worth of the waste in making pennies.

Their roles are different and technologies a decade apart. I am very familiar with both and while the F-22 is quite the air superiority fighter, the F-35 is a true quarterback that can serve multiple roles from air-to-air, air-to-ground, close air support, electronic countermeasure, intel gathering, swarm control, battle space management, and integrated targetting with other air assets and ship assets. With such leading edge technologies, you are going to have issues. With that said, the F-35 has flown combat missions and is exceeding expectation in advanced testing, including defeating multiple F-22 and FA-18 superhornets. When its new software is online it will be even more robust. Here is something some may find interesting...

https://taskandpurpose.com/air-force-f35...g-exercise

https://www.airforcetimes.com/news/your-...-red-flag/

The F-22 is a "fifth generation" fighter. Those links only tell of the F-35 defeating fourth generation fighters (presumably F-16s or FA-18s). I would hope that the $1.5 trillion boondoggle jet would be able to defeat a plane developed 50 years ago, although I have my doubts about it beating an F-15 in actual combat (rather than simulation). Unless you have a better link I strongly doubt an F-35 can defeat an F-22 in air to air combat.

The Navy needed a new plane. So did the Marines. But trying to build a plane that fits a "multiple role" use means that you get a plane that isn't best at anything. To me, that's a waste. And the Warthog is still a better anti-tank plane.

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"Why should I give information to you when all you want to do is find something wrong with it?"