<story><title>The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-31/the-u-s-has-forgotten-how-to-do-infrastructure</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Dirlewanger</author><text>&amp;gt;campaign finance reform, perhaps?&lt;p&gt;Abso-fucking-lutely. I think in order to run at any levels of office, you should be using public money. For simplification, let&amp;#x27;s say if one wants to run for president, they can only use whatever is in the FEC public coffers. In return, we levy a federal FEC tax to boost it way higher than its current rates. We replicate a similar tax at state and local levels. Completely remove private donations and PACs and all that shit from the lawbooks. A fuckload of people want to run for president? Well, you better get creative with your tiny slice of the pie. Show us how fiscally responsible you really are.&lt;p&gt;People would scream and holler about it not being American, but it&amp;#x27;s one of the only ways, I think, to really take a large stab at our chronic corruption.</text></item><item><author>michaelt</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  That suggests that U.S. costs are high due to general
  inefficiency [...] Americans have simply ponied up more
  and more cash over the years while ignoring the fact that
  they were getting less and less for their money.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
There&amp;#x27;s a general effect in political systems, that if a law takes $20 from 1,000,000 people and gives $100,000 to 200 people, the people who lose money won&amp;#x27;t have enough incentive to put up a big fight; but the people who receive money will have more than enough motivation.&lt;p&gt;For example, if a big irrigation project will force taxpayers to subsidise corporate farms, the corporations have a big incentive to spend on ads and campaign contributions. Or if you have to give $60 to a private company for tax filing software, they have a big incentive to lobby and make campaign contributions to keep the tax system complicated.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure construction projects are subject to the same pro-waste incentives.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure what the solution to this is - campaign finance reform, perhaps?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kcorbitt</author><text>Expecting Washington to determine who is a serious candidate (and then policing their use of federal funds) is a major conflict of interest, because policymakers will almost certainly set standards that benefit the two entrenched parties. I&amp;#x27;ve toyed with an alternative concept, though, that might achieve the same effect with less required oversight.&lt;p&gt;The idea is a sort of non-partisan &amp;quot;un-PAC&amp;quot; -- a fundraising organization explicitly dedicated to combating corporate political donations. If a presidential candidate or his affiliated PACs recieved eg. $5MM in fundraising from oil executives, the un-PAC would spend $5MM on negative advertising linking him in the public&amp;#x27;s mind with that industry. If the un-PAC raised enough money, eventually a large multiple of corporate donations could be spent counteracting them, and at some point it would become uneconomical for politicians to accept those donations at all.&lt;p&gt;We spent about $6B on the 2016 federal elections (&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.opensecrets.org&amp;#x2F;overview&amp;#x2F;cost.php&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.opensecrets.org&amp;#x2F;overview&amp;#x2F;cost.php&lt;/a&gt;). That comes out to about $20 for every American. That&amp;#x27;s a big number to beat, but not impossible, and every bit along the way helps.</text></comment>
<story><title>The US has forgotten how to do infrastructure</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-05-31/the-u-s-has-forgotten-how-to-do-infrastructure</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Dirlewanger</author><text>&amp;gt;campaign finance reform, perhaps?&lt;p&gt;Abso-fucking-lutely. I think in order to run at any levels of office, you should be using public money. For simplification, let&amp;#x27;s say if one wants to run for president, they can only use whatever is in the FEC public coffers. In return, we levy a federal FEC tax to boost it way higher than its current rates. We replicate a similar tax at state and local levels. Completely remove private donations and PACs and all that shit from the lawbooks. A fuckload of people want to run for president? Well, you better get creative with your tiny slice of the pie. Show us how fiscally responsible you really are.&lt;p&gt;People would scream and holler about it not being American, but it&amp;#x27;s one of the only ways, I think, to really take a large stab at our chronic corruption.</text></item><item><author>michaelt</author><text>&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;  That suggests that U.S. costs are high due to general
  inefficiency [...] Americans have simply ponied up more
  and more cash over the years while ignoring the fact that
  they were getting less and less for their money.
&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
There&amp;#x27;s a general effect in political systems, that if a law takes $20 from 1,000,000 people and gives $100,000 to 200 people, the people who lose money won&amp;#x27;t have enough incentive to put up a big fight; but the people who receive money will have more than enough motivation.&lt;p&gt;For example, if a big irrigation project will force taxpayers to subsidise corporate farms, the corporations have a big incentive to spend on ads and campaign contributions. Or if you have to give $60 to a private company for tax filing software, they have a big incentive to lobby and make campaign contributions to keep the tax system complicated.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m sure construction projects are subject to the same pro-waste incentives.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure what the solution to this is - campaign finance reform, perhaps?</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jimmyk</author><text>&amp;gt;For simplification, let&amp;#x27;s say if one wants to run for president, they can only use whatever is in the FEC public coffers.&lt;p&gt;What in particular would they not be allowed to use private money to do?&lt;p&gt;Would individuals that aren&amp;#x27;t running be allowed to use private money to do those things?</text></comment>