US Senator: Preserving Videogame History Wastes Money

[kebab4you]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

Just cut some of your damn military then, as you said priorities.

 

[Nieroshai]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

Just cut some of your damn military then, as you said priorities.

Ah yes, preservation of human rights and defeat of a faction that oppresses said rights is so much less important than sealing old consoles and cartridges behind glass. I am so owned.

 

[JoesshittyOs]

A senator concerned about wasting money? HAHAHAHAHA.

But in reality, why did we spend money on that?

 

[kebab4you]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

Just cut some of your damn military then, as you said priorities.

Ah yes, preservation of human rights and defeat of a faction that oppresses said rights is so much less important than sealing old consoles and cartridges behind glass. I am so owned.

Do note I said some and not all, your military is big enough that cutting a few billions to it wouldn't do any harm to your security as a country. And how can you spout about humans right when your government is about to pass NDAA?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Preserving history is suddenly not important. But if Osama Bin Laden was strangled to death with a Nintendo gamepad cord, millions would be spent on preserving that piece of history.

And let's not forget how many billions they've spent on useless wars. Not just this year, but every year. And what was the excuse? Bringing democracy to Middle East. Yeah, because that worked out great. Maybe USA should adopt the Prime Directive from Star Trek. Don't force your ways onto primitive countries until they're ready to be integrated into modern societies. IT DOESN'T WORK. IT NEVER DID AND IT NEVER WILL. It's a waste of life and it's a waste of money.

 

[General Vagueness]

I don't get that. You seem like you should know the importance and influence of history of all kinds. Why should they fund schools but not preserving information?

I do, but it's not really on the government to do that.

And aside from that, do you really think that video games will be taught in public schools? Not to say video games aren't relevant history, but it's not exactly the same thing as, say, the Civil War, the underground railroad, and so forth... even then, I still don't think it's the government's responsibility to preserve such things.

I was going to ask about this in response but I saw someone already had:

Do you think we should do away with the Library of Congress? It serves a very important role. I think private citizens and institutions should be leading the way and doing most of the work but if the budget allows the government should step in with support.

The point of the LoC is that it is a research library for Congress. Yes, the public can access it, but the point is that it's there to serve the research purposes of Congress... and the Supreme Court. It has a function necessary for the continued operation of the government. If the public benefits, more's the better.

The Library of Congress isn't necessary for the government to continue though, and given some decisions that have been made I question how much they actually use it.

What about NASA (for/against)?

EDIT: Saying that the amount of money is relatively small is NOT an argument of why it should or should not be spent. Making such an argument makes you look foolish. Maybe you can give me $5. Its not that much money compared to what is in your checking account, right?

This is a point I wanted to make. Thank you for making it. If this were YouTube, this comment would get a thumbs up.

I think you're missing something-- we all seem to agree here that this is a good thing, so the cheapness is a plus. As for the argument itself, it makes sense to eliminate large costs before small ones-- it's not an either/or thing, it's doing things in order.

These politicians man, if hell exists, its full of em

quoted for truth

 

[Evil Alpaca]

I'm a pretty liberal guy, but honestly, preserving history isn't really the government's job.

If private citizens are interested in preserving the history of fillintheblank, then it should be up to them to make the donations. Personally, I'd rather see better schools, infrastructure, and healthcare for all (told you I was liberal). That's what the government is there for: protecting and maintaining the health and well-being of the citizens. Supporting the arts and history is, and always has been, the domain of patrons and private interests.

So you prefer the Creationist museum over the Smithsonian?


Its an extreme example but private collection museums would have an agenda when they build their exhibits. I will admit that you have a valid point about the importance of infrastructure and citizen well-being over less crucial points, but that doesn't mean preserving history is worthless. The Library of Congress not only helps preserve ancient books and more recently films, but it also shows the culture of the time.

 

[Sylveria]

I'm a pretty liberal guy, but honestly, preserving history isn't really the government's job.

If private citizens are interested in preserving the history of fillintheblank, then it should be up to them to make the donations. Personally, I'd rather see better schools, infrastructure, and healthcare for all (told you I was liberal). That's what the government is there for: protecting and maintaining the health and well-being of the citizens. Supporting the arts and history is, and always has been, the domain of patrons and private interests.

Yeah I can't think of any museums, historical preservation groups or the like that are funded in some fashion by the federal government.. Oh.. except that little on in DC that no one ever goes to... The Smithsonian or something like that.

 

[Vivi22]

I'm a pretty liberal guy, but honestly, preserving history isn't really the government's job.

If private citizens are interested in preserving the history of fillintheblank, then it should be up to them to make the donations. Personally, I'd rather see better schools, infrastructure, and healthcare for all (told you I was liberal). That's what the government is there for: protecting and maintaining the health and well-being of the citizens. Supporting the arts and history is, and always has been, the domain of patrons and private interests.

While I would love to be able to live in a Libertarian utopia, sadly the world doesn't work that way all of the time.

No, it's not really the job of government to preserve history. But the sad reality is that unless they provide money to start conservation efforts and museums like these, it's unlikely it will ever happen. The general public is really good at coming up with a list of things that we "should" donate to but never actually following through.

At least if the organizations trying to get these things off the ground can get the money to get the ball rolling then it would become easier for them to charge admission to exhibits, and bring in private donations. It's a lot harder to do either when you have little, if anything, done yet.

And really, the issue I have with what this senator is saying isn't with the idea that government shouldn't have to fund this in an ideal world. It's that he's focusing on video games and specifically implying that only games aren't worth preserving. He says nothing of the grants which go to other museums, or scientific research so his problem isn't with government over stepping it's bounds and spending money on things which aren't it's responsibility. He also singles out relatively small items totalling around $30 billion if I recall, rather than amounts which present a much larger problem like trillions spent on multiple wars in the last decade, or on defence projects the military doesn't even want.

Sure, it's important to consider cutting unnecessary spending, but you have to keep things in perspective, and this senator is simply politicking by attacking what amounts to a drop in the bucket rather than risking pissing people off by criticizing spending which is just as unnecessary and orders of magnitude larger.

 

[chadachada123]

Considering this would cost each American 1/2800 dollars, or .03 cents yearly...

Yes, absolutely. We can save that much by raising the temperature of a few buildings in Iraq/Afghanistan by one freaking degree. (The cost of air conditioning alone overseas costs more than NASA's entire budget).

 

[chadachada123]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

Just cut some of your damn military then, as you said priorities.

Ah yes, preservation of human rights and defeat of a faction that oppresses said rights is so much less important than sealing old consoles and cartridges behind glass. I am so owned.

Yes, we must preserve our rights by infringing on our rights and the rights of others.

Great argument.

 

[chadachada123]

I'm a pretty liberal guy, but honestly, preserving history isn't really the government's job.

If private citizens are interested in preserving the history of fillintheblank, then it should be up to them to make the donations. Personally, I'd rather see better schools, infrastructure, and healthcare for all (told you I was liberal). That's what the government is there for: protecting and maintaining the health and well-being of the citizens. Supporting the arts and history is, and always has been, the domain of patrons and private interests.

I don't get that. You seem like you should know the importance and influence of history of all kinds. Why should they fund schools but not preserving information? Heck, history is a subject in schools. It's almost like saying "I want to buy a candle but not the wick".

Also to the comments about it being wasteful, there's more to the "war on drugs" than arresting you for smoking pot or your unfortunate brother/cousin/friend for doing crack or heroin.

There's really only one other thing that the war on drugs does, though, and that's that it empowers the gangs and mobs that traffic drugs, increasing violent crime, murder, etc, and preventing people that ARE addicted to drugs from getting the help they need from fear of being prosecuted. Imprisoning millions of our own people for having/growing/selling a FUCKING PLANT is insane.

Not to mention the fact that marijuana and psychedelic shrooms have EXTREMELY important medicinal uses but aren't allowed to be studied or given FDA certification because of their class 1 status.

 

[Thamian]

Not being American, my opinion may well be invalid, but going by the precedent (AFI), an initial outlay to start this thing up is right and proper for your government to be doing, if it's an on going funding, maybe not.

 

[Nieroshai]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

Just cut some of your damn military then, as you said priorities.

Ah yes, preservation of human rights and defeat of a faction that oppresses said rights is so much less important than sealing old consoles and cartridges behind glass. I am so owned.

Yes, we must preserve our rights by infringing on our rights and the rights of others.

Great argument.

In what twisted view are you seeing this? We liberated 2 countries AND defended their asses until they built their own governments and militaries. And before you cite "war for oil," we did not get nor request any, and practically did this babysitting for free. But as opposed to yet another non-private museum, this actually helped people. This was a preservation of basic rights. Unless you think tyranny ensures freedom and rights.

 

[duchaked]

well I suppose we could just keep making (perfect) ports...

 

[MPerce]

The moment I saw the title, I just knew it would be a senator from my home state. We REALLY love to embarrass ourselves politically....

 

[Sarge034]

Yes, but especially now of all times, is it money that needs spending? Would you rather go further into debt to preserve the Power Glove, or repair our infrastructure? Priorities. The moment we aren't knee deep in debt, then we can focus on that kind of thing.

You assume we can't do both. If we (the US) eliminated 1/100 of the wasteful spending or policies then we would not be having this issue. I'm not talking about projects before you say this is one of those policies. I'm talking about money being wasted out of inefficiency.

For example did you know that if the government starts to use a private contractor for a certain job then the government cannot legally get rid of the contractors and begin using federal employees again? It does not matter if using federal employees will be cheaper or if the contract is up. Once a job becomes "contracted" it is stuck there and the contractors can charge outrageous amounts in the next contract renewal for half-assed work because the only people the job can go to is other contractors that do the same thing.

The problem is with the politicians. Once we get people that care more for the country than special interests then we will have enough money to preserve history, preserve our military, and preserve our country.

With that being said I'm guessing this country only has another 20 years or so before it collapses.

 

[marioandsonic]

Well, if the US government is willing to spend over $600k to see whether or not prayer can cure AIDS, I say why not.

No, I'm not kidding.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/ct-met-nccam-overview-20111211,0,1371814,full.story