Programs will write programs.
Again, if your concern was genuine about both social programs for people as well as corporate welfare and jingoism, you would be equally ranting against both. But you seem fixated on people's ability to get food or cancer treatment first. Why would that be the priority and not first going after the richest people in the country who aren't in a life or death situation? Alos, we have drawn a line, clearly, we cover less of peoples healthcare than any modern developed nation. The biggest issue we have is not how many people or how much we are covering people. You can easily drop the percentage of our budget that health services take up if we fight to reduce the actual health services and products costs like Canada does.
That you can access a computer at any library is somehow relevant once again highlights that you just don't have the life experience. Either you are very old or very young. There are few modern jobs that don't require you to bring your own laptop. Most of the jobs you seem to support in the STEM majors require a high-end setup as well btw. You can't tell your boss hey I'm actually not coming into the office because I'm working out of my local library...
Skilled trades are not the economy... plumbers, electricians, carpenters, mechanics, millwrights, machinists, etc. need to work for people, and those people have highly specialized jobs because of the advanced economy we live in, which requires an education. Btw those job growth projections from the US Bureau of Labor say those are just amongst jobs that will grow. It isn't to the exclusion of other jobs. The overwhelming number of the jobs are actually in positions that require an education.
Education makes poets and artists better. And yes many of the singers, actresses, and artists you have heard of went to art schools. Even 2Pac went to an art school.
In regards to people's issue of gratification. First off you act like those impulses aren't created, encouraged, and coerced by the same companies selling them stuff. They have been advertising and brainwashing people into a lack of impulse control their whole lives. And second off the impulse control is a very minimal aspect of the issue. You're taking a super narrow issue that doesn't even affect everyone and choosing to blame that for much more obvious issues.
Like the complete stall in income growth as the cost of everything else has gone up. What is my generation supposed to do? Our disposable income is being strangled but if we don't spend the economy stalls.
China is overtaking us because of massive public spending and government using the state to drive the economy or shore up economic crises in the country. You're using them as an example of what is overtaking us as well as saying that is what not to do. The world's highest entitlements spenders happen to also be the richest and most successful states...
It is almost like public spending drives the economy.
And once again, these other states welfare systems are less problematic because they have national negotiations on pharmaceuticals as well as medical products being imported. It's not complicated how we can fix this, we don't need to let people starve suffer or die. Bernie Sanders tried to fix the pharmaceutical issue but he was betrayed by Cory Booker who tanked the bill being passed even though Sanders had gotten the Republican voted to pass it. Yet another reason Centrists are trash.
Sorry but we are nowhere close to programs writing programs on an industrial scale. It will be decades before humans are mostly removed from programming on a large scale. Even then, you will still need humans for creative thinking. We have not yet come up with AI. When we reach that point supplies of most everything will outstrip demand so much so that most necessities in life will cost nothing. At that point you are talking about an entirely different type of economy. I would like to talk about current affairs though if you don't mind.
I am against government handouts in general. If anything I am more against corporate handouts than those for individuals. Businesses have to be allowed to fail when they make poor decisions or they will keep making them because they know they will be bailed out. People are not too dissimilar, but companies impact far more people than an individual can, and I have compassion for people in need and none for a poorly run company. I just happened to respond to your one comment which happened to be about handouts to individuals.
I never said that blue collar jobs would grow and no others would, I just said that there would be significant growth in those jobs compared to white collar jobs simply due to the fact that very few people are training to become skilled workers because everyone wants to be white collar. Supply and demand will drive up the value of blue collar work compared to white collar jobs.
We actually have not drawn a line. No one has tried to slow the increasing cost of entitlements at all. Our solution is to print more money, vote to raise our debt ceiling, and then stick our heads back in the sand hoping that our benevolent and wise government will take care of us.
I am glad to see we agree that people are brainwashed to consume. That is a major issue whether you believe it or not. It should concern you that the majority of families in this country have less than $1000 in savings. This is one of the reasons so many people feel they have to have a government safety net to protect them because they have chosen not to provide one for themselves.
You seem to be focused on the outliers of the economic bell curve while I am talking about the majority. Yes there are people who cannot afford to save money because they don't make enough to do so. Their issues are different than the majority of Americans. I don't mind them getting some assistance to help them get on their feet, but the kinds of "assistance" our government gives does not encourage people to try to better themselves. It encourages them to do the opposite. If they start to make more money and get ahead, then they lose their assistance before they can afford to lose it. That makes no sense. There are better solutions that will encourage people to try to get ahead rather than keep them impoverished.
Where we really differ though is you believe government is the solution to all our problems while I believe that people are better suited to solve their problems.
Oh and nice try with the ad hominem attacks. Try to focus on attacking my arguments rather than me.