by Jack M.
Many of us get very annoyed with having to pay taxes, at least I do. Whether it’s income taxes, sales taxes, or property taxes it's all annoying to pay. Taxes are very needed though. Taxes are what allows the government to run, it pays for public events, goods for citizens, most of our infrastructure, police/firemen, education, and so much more. Although these are all good things, the government has wasted tax dollars on absolutely ridiculous things.
The first example “Get Fruved,” is one of the best examples of wasted tax dollars. The government decided to give the University of Knoxville $4.8 million of taxpayers funds to the “Get Fruved,” movement in 2016. For this movement, college kids bought and made full body costumes of fruit and vegetables. They used these costumes to walk around campus, having chants and telling people to eat fruits and vegetables which mostly targeted kids. I totally agree that eating fruits and vegetables is very important, but we shouldn’t give $4.8 million to create a movement that is probably scaring kids more than motivating them to eat fruits and vegetables.
A second example is the cost of some aircrafts that the USA created. The graph to the left shows how much is spent on each single aircraft in the millions. Having a very strong military is very important for many reasons. It ensures our safety and much more, but I feel like spending around $250 million on a single aircraft is excessive considering we aren't at war. Some people could claim that it is needed because this is one of the plains we use to drop bombs or missiles. That is a fair argument, but then yet again we created 195 of them when many of them havent been used besides test flights and training. Less than half of those have been used in combat. This is just the price of developing the plains. It cost a lot more for the whole program and fight costs. If you were to add that into the price it would roughly be a little more than $300 million per plain. Yet again this is only a plain way more is spent everywhere else such as last year we built another aircraft carrier that cost just over $12 billion and $3 billion for a new submarine. In 2016 the military budget was $610 billion dollars. When you would look at China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, France, United Kingdom, India, and Germany their military budget combined would be less than ours alone at $601 billion. Like I said before, it is very important we have a strong military for a lot of reasons, but in my opinion we have been going way too overboard and wasting a lot of money that could be helping us more in other needed areas.
Overall the US government waists way too much of our tax money and the list could go on and on. Some more examples are we spent $1.5 million on a program that created a robot that folded laundry that no one uses. Spend $500,000 to study the immune system on a shrimp running on a treadmill. Spent $863,000 on a program to eradicate brown tree snakes in Guam in fiscal year 2019. For that we didn’t study the snakes or do anything besides remove them on an Island that didn't have anything to do with the US. A Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction report shows the Overseas Private Investment Corporation loaned $85 million to a contractor for construction of a hotel and apartment complex in Kabul, Afghanistan which the project was never completed. Finally, they spent $1.04 billion to expand the San Diego trolley 10.9 miles that less than 60,000 people use a day.
None of this will get better anytime soon until people start speaking up. I wish I never looked into this because on top of the examples I gave, I found many other waste of tax money and I find it very annoying this is where my money is going to be going. Do you think we need more taxes to provide more for the people or can we do it with the taxes staying the same but just spending it smarter?
https://www.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/curtis-kalin/top-20-worst-ways-government-wasted-your-tax-dollars
To answer your question, I think if spent wisely we don't have to change our methods. Independent businesses could also play a large role in how much we will spend. Overall, this was super interesting to read--I was wondering what the top picture was about so I decided to read more--and, wow. Your examples fully back up your personal opinion, and it's crazy the amount of money we spend for materials that are somewhat pointless. How are we able to spread awareness about this; can we peacefully protest or contribute in other ways?
ReplyDeleteYou could tell you were passionate writing this after learning where most of our money goes to. I 100% with the vegetable and fruits campaign and the other miscellaneous things we've created in the last paragraph. I would also agree with you of our needless spending on our military, but at the same time, I don't. I do have a little bias towards the military because I've been a military kid for a hot minute, but I think symbolism wise it shows that we are prepared for either retaliation or attack when the time comes for it to protect out ideology and the American people. We, for a fact, have the strongest military in the world and can dominate the world if we choose to do so (but we all know that ain't gonna happen). Our military spending should go down to a lower cost to focus on us but I also think it should still our top spender in our government budget for every year. Either way, still love your article.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the Get Fruved movement was very impact to society. Just kidding. The ways our government chooses to spend our money is a joke. Answering your question; I believe the government should tax less and businesses will grow in response, improving the overall economy. Services like this aren't worth it, people can instead keep the money and provide their own services with it.
ReplyDeleteYour article instantly grabbed me when I saw the title. I can't think of anyone who is glad that their tax dollars could be going to such a goofy movement like Get Fruved (although the idea that 4.8 million dollars was spent on it is more comedic than the idea itself). I agree with your statement that the US is wasting a lot of money on seemingly useless or worthless things but my question for you is, how do we change this? I know it is not just you who feels the same way about where our hard earned money is going into so how can we speak up and actually make a change? Overall I loved this article and I think you did a great job talking about something most of us who pay taxes are thinking.
ReplyDeleteI like your call to action at the end as it gives the reader a chance to share their ideal government budget. I think that if we can spend 250$ million like it is nothing on a plane, we can do much more to fund education, affordable healthcare, and financial relief. And yet the government refuses to do this, as their agenda is different than that of most people when it comes to spending. Unfortunately, nationalism (the competition to have the best military) has proven itself more important than supporting all citizens. Its very sad that a lot of people believe that the military is more important than baseline needs for all- its really sad that this many tax dollars are wasted.
ReplyDeleteI also feel strongly about this topic! If you're like me, you have tried to read bills that the government are voting on. They are just so long that no one would bother to read them. Why are they so long? What is in them that people, even those voting on them, have no idea about? I wish the government would make more simple bills so the average American could read them and understand where money will be going with each bill passed.
ReplyDeleteWe can elect the politicians that we want to represent us, but we don't have control when they spend our money on silly things like this which is frustrating. I feel like to the government $4.8 million isn't a lot, but it could be going to so many more useful things. What's even more frustrating is that most of the public would have no idea that their money is going towards these useless things.
ReplyDeleteWow, I didn't realize that campaigns like the "Get Fruved" is something that taxpayers fund! I wonder what the government perspective on that is however, like are was the 4.8 million simply on costumes for the University, or was it also spent elsewhere to help promote this campaign. If the money was simply spent on costumes, that would be extremely frustrating. Also, with the military spending, I completely agree that it is unreasonable for us to spend such large amounts on it when most other countries spend significantly less.
ReplyDeleteIt is really annoying how much money the government wastes! Even performing necessary functions like keeping roads up to date seem to be filled with inefficiencies and corruption. That said, I don't think the solution is to cut taxes and decrease spending. Government actions are an important way to regulate the economy and to work towards the good of the whole. I think a better solution would be to have government spending monitored by an independent organization to verify that money is being used efficiently and fairly. Something like this might work well to limit embezzling and inefficiency.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to see how our government spends our tax dollars. Even when our tax dollars go to something good like fixing potholes in the roads it takes forever for the potholes to be fixed. It's unfortunate that the government can do whatever they want with the tax dollars and the citizens have little to no say about the use of tax dollars.
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