US Senator: Preserving Videogame History Wastes Money

[RJ 17]

I say we make Dubya pay back all the money lost during HIS term in office. That guy's as liable as a serial killer found with bloody hands and arms with the knife in his hand and SITTING on all of his victims. Soak Cheney while we're at it.

You do realize that our current president has expanded the national debt more than all presidents before him combined, right? Bush was far from an ideal president, I'll easily admit that, I'm just saying that 3 years into a new president's administration is pretty damn late to still be blaming the previous president.

As for the topic at hand, I'm a little torn. On the one hand I'm a gamer, on the other I'm a conservative. The gamer in me would love to see a well created and maintained historical preservation of videogames, but on the other it really doesn't seem like the type of thing the government should be bothered with. As others have suggested: this seems like something that could easily be taken care of with a fundraising campaign. Hell, they could probably pull it off just by asking Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony to kick in 33K each for the historical preservation of games and I bet all three companies would consider it, if not just flat out say yes.

That said, however, as many other posters have pointed out: this isn't even a drop in the bucket compared to the countless pet projects out there. And if this really is just a 100K grant as a start-up fund to get things up and running before this videogame museum is on it's own, then I can say it's a worthy venture for a one-time payment. Lord knows there's been far more wasteful projects that the government has just thrown money at.

 

[Blind Sight]

60% of the budget is for entitlement programs and military spending, the two things that the so-called 'deficit cutters' refuse to even touch. A hundred thousand dollars is nothing to that. I mean, I'm pretty fiscally conservative when it comes to government spending, so I don't exactly agree with this use of taxpayer dollars, but claiming it as a major problem lacks a certain perspective.

 

[CosmicCommander]

As a minarchist, I'm opposed to almost all government spending.

Hehhehe. That was easy.

 

[FalloutJack]

I say we make Dubya pay back all the money lost during HIS term in office. That guy's as liable as a serial killer found with bloody hands and arms with the knife in his hand and SITTING on all of his victims. Soak Cheney while we're at it.

You do realize that our current president has expanded the national debt more than all presidents before him combined, right? Bush was far from an ideal president, I'll easily admit that, I'm just saying that 3 years into a new president's administration is pretty damn late to still be blaming the previous president.

Putting aside that my comment was slightly jokey in that it was deliberately unrealistic a demand, the reality is that the next president was going to have it hard no matter WHO it was because of the previous eight years. That's the sad state of politics. They focus on all the wrong agendas. Clinton had originally turned around the national deficit for the country, but is more frequently remembered for his other affairs. Passing around sour milk is a longstanding tradition around here. I have a good helping to heave on Bush because I didn't vote for him or re-elect him and I spent his entire terms wondering why the hell anyone WOULD. If it was the man's life-long dream to be a political troll, then MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

(Also, you mean like Project Star Wars? The idea that was labeled unfeasible since the Reagan administration, yet kept receiving funding anyway?)

 

[Harker067]

You know you're spending 6 times on the military then what the next closest country is spending. Just cutting 1/6th of that so that you're only out pacing china's spending by 5 times would free up 100 billion dollars a year. Not to mention all the money you're wasting on abstinence only sex ed etc...

 

[xXAsherahXx]

Oh my goodness!!! 100K!!! How will we recover if one foundation gets 100K. That's no match for the 14 Trillion and counting our deficit has.

Honestly, I think it's ridiculous that the senator thinks that would help, but I don't really think it's crucial that the foundation continues to receive funding at the moment. Perhaps later when the crisis is over.

If only the rich would figure that out and accept a higher tax rate. Those dumb little "job-creators."

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Snip

I will agree to not preserve games if the old Senators agree to stop preserving their old lives with the special healthcare WE are paying for.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

As a minarchist, I'm opposed to almost all government spending.

Hehhehe. That was easy.

Libertarian, so much the same line of thinking.

 

[Yelchor]

Giving out -trillions- in tax cuts for corporations and the top 1% richest people (aka "Job Creators") in the country so that they might use it to spend in the U.S (While they just invest abroad with it with no one but the politicians making a profit off of lobbying deals)? It just -has- to be done in order to stabilize our budget! We must all do equal sacrifice (taxing on corporations and wealthy currently being at a record low)!

But wait, what's this? Small million-dollar projects that goes towards preserving our cultural legacy for future generations to explore? That's just unacceptable! We must give as much as we can to our corporate overlor- I mean JOB CREATORS who are struggling to get you a job every day (It's coming, we swear)!

That's what it all has sounded to me atleast. My point being this: The politicians in the U.S national politics who aren't bought by lobbyists will likely have little to no chance of having a career on the political arena, as it's all controlled by the money, enabling the rich to have a monopoly on influence over what's decided regarding all sorts of things which could greatly affect the whole country. Not interested one bit in what the actual majority of people demand.

Simply put. I see nothing but hypocrisy.

 

[kebab4you]

Oh my goodness!!! 100K!!! How will we recover if one foundation gets 100K. That's no match for the 14 Trillion and counting our deficit has.

Honestly, I think it's ridiculous that the senator thinks that would help, but I don't really think it's crucial that the foundation continues to receive funding at the moment. Perhaps later when the crisis is over.

If only the rich would figure that out and accept a higher tax rate. Those dumb little "job-creators."

But if we start to tax them more, more job will go lost since they can't hire anyone![footnote]Before anyone responds: yes I was ironic[/footnote]

 

[MaxwellEdison]

It's only $100,000. Who gives a shit?
We're throwing billions at other programs, and he's flipping out over this? This is what I love about conservatives in our country. They call for massive cuts to reduce the problem (ignoring for a moment that we could simply raise revenue instead), but are only willing to cut things like education and environmental protection, or tiny footnotes like this.

How about we check out that military?

 

[JesterRaiin]

The idea of wasting $100k for preserving videogames history is more appealing to me than spending one million $$$ to invent new breed of superviruses. But who am i to judge what is better for mankind ?

 

[Rainboq]

Solutions to your budget problems: One: Raise taxes where needed.

Two: curb military spending.

Three: Legalize some, less harmful, drugs(like marijuana) and then sell it in government clinics that keep records of who is using what and how much of each drug(to better ID addicts and get them the help they need) then tax the sh*t out of it.

Four: clean up corruption within the government, and don't pretend it isn't there, because it is, you just don't want to admit it.

 

[tstorm823]

Nope, that grant is stupid. Any arguement that the amount is negligible is countered with "then they could easily raise those funds privately."

 

[Varanfan9]

You know maybe it wouldn't be a waste of money if you guys didn't spend unnecessary billions on the military and cracking down on unnecessary crimes. Think about that and come back to me.

 

[RA92]

Are we really surprised? They cut down NASA's budget so low that now it's less than the funding required for the military's air-conditioning.

And this is video games we're talking about.

 

[Druyn]

I fall pretty much in the middle politically, but I don't really see why this needs to be government problem. Preserving history isn't their job. If private interests want to preserve it, which I'm sure many do, let them handle it and raise the funds on their own. Everybody keeps saying this is nothing compared to all the other money spent on more useless programs, which is absolutely true. But the fact of the matter is that this isn't an essential program, and if in times like these, I think I might actually favor cutting it. It isn't a government job, and private interests will undoubtedly take over, so why use this 100k on it?

 

[Beautiful End]

Oh, Maker. What is their beef against video games?! You would think they believe them to be worse than cocaine or rape or murder. Or a murdering cocaine-addict rapist. With a pedophile complex.

100k is nothing. The tax per games pretty much should pay for it ($5 of tax per every $60 game. Just MW3 alone should cover that). I'm all up for saving money for important things, but this is just irrelevant and dumb! Useless and boring and stupid objects, they say? Any other ignorant person could say the same thing about museums of...beer! Or...giant balls of yarn. Or toilets. Or even plain, old museums.

You really wanna save money? how about forcing politicians to pay up 10% of their yearly income to help the economy? I'm sure that would solve all of our problems. And 10% per year should be nothing. But noooooooooooooooooo! Maker forbid we take money from the RICH! *sigh*

 

[soes757]

If you're so worried about the cash we have, why don't we just drop one of our wars?
Oh wait, we have to be in them because otherwise we're going to get blown up by...who?
Oh that's right, scapegoats.

 

[Sporky111]

I'm pretty sure all 100 of the things on his list put together would pale in comparison to the trillions of dollars in the American Defense Budget.

Please, gaming is the most profitable entertainment industry in America. With a book named "Wastebook" this guy is just aiming to get as much shock and awe as he can before he runs out of buzzwords and hot topics.