70% oppose weapons subsidies, 46% oppose farm subsidies. Government does it anyway. Democracy works perfectly if you order cinder blocks not pizza.
Think by Numbers runs cost-benefit analyses for a species that spends $604 on weapons for every $1 on clinical trials. We suspect a math error.
The Declaration of Optimization
These governments have enough weapons to end civilization 122 times over. Current military spending is enough money to buy 850 bullets for every person alive every single year. You only need to kill everyone once for everyone to be dead. (I checked.) The remaining murder capacity is sheer waste.
For every 604 dollars they spend on the capacity for orphan manufacturing, they only spend one on clinical trials that might cure the diseases that will slowly torture and brutally murder you and everyone you have ever loved.
Your chance of being killed by a terrorist? 1 in 30 million. Your chance of dying of a disease? 100%.
This is suboptimal.
Posts, Ranked by Extinction-Prevention Potential
Stock prices follow profits until positive feedback loops create bubbles. More buyers raise prices, higher prices attract more buyers. Then the music stops and someone's holding the bag.
Finance jumped from 4% of GDP (1960s) to 8% (2007), costing $2 trillion annually—more than healthcare, construction, food combined. It's computer money-shuffling.
Fed printed $6 trillion for bank bailouts. Stock prices soared, rich got richer, poor can't afford houses. Inflation only 1.5% though.
Study of 59,634 people in 54 countries proves progressive taxes make people happier—they report better life satisfaction and respect than flat-tax countries.
Monetary inflation (money supply) vs price inflation (CPI). Money supply exploded, prices stayed stable. Inflation is hidden flat tax governments use instead of asking citizens to pay.
Your vote has same odds as winning lottery 7 times. CAPTCHA for stupidity filters crowdsourcing bias by removing people who guess wrong.
Chile recovered from 1982 crisis in 2.5 years without bailouts. Mexico took 7 years with intervention. Government stimulus is like using a flamethrower to put out a fire.
Military gets $2 trillion, brain research gets $13 billion. We spend 154x more on bombs than abolishing all suffering forever.
$1.5 trillion spent on drug war enforcement with zero change in addiction rates. Like paying someone $10 billion yearly to not do their job.