Anyone Else Staying Up For The CERN Announcement About The Higgs Boson Tonight?

[giblets]

The US Military budget is one reason you're broke - not NASA.

The US isn't "broke".

[Lorizael]

So why don't your ethics permit experimenting on humans?

As I've said repeatedly, I don't really delve into my philosophy on Apolyton. Briefly, my ethics place a very high value on consent.

[giblets]

As I've said repeatedly, I don't really delve into my philosophy on Apolyton. Briefly, my ethics place a very high value on consent.

Fine. The US government can tell people they can either submit to experiments or leave the country. By staying they "consent".

[Lorizael]

Fine. The US government can tell people they can either submit to experiments or leave the country. By staying they "consent".

I have no problem with that on a conceptual level. Clearly, however, the American people did not consent to be ruled by a government that would pose such an ultimatum.

[DaShi]

What if they vote for Romney?

[Ben Kenobi]

The US Military budget is one reason you're broke - not NASA.

Oddly enough, military spending stayed the same over that period. All the increase is in domestic spending. So it's not military spending that's driving the increase in spending under the Obama administration.

[Lorizael]

What if they vote for Romney?

If we vote for Romney, we deserve whatever we get.

[self biased]

Fine. The US government can tell people they can either submit to experiments or leave the country. By staying they "consent".

[Kuciwalker]

Excuse me? Clearly, I benefit from much that the government does that has nothing at all to do with advancing human knowledge. Regardless, these are not philosophical priorities for me. What I want and what benefits me as a person living in the United States are very different things. Don't presume to know how my ethics function.

I can presume to know from revealed preferences. "almost any cost"? Are you serious? (No.)

[Aeson]

So your argument is that they waste money, but it's ok if they waste money on something you like? Why not let the people who pay taxes keep their money?

I suppose we could have directed that funding to planned parenthood instead...

(Only a moron would think that the US would have lowered taxes if not for LHC.)

[Ben Kenobi]

If people want to fund Planned Parenthood with their tax refund - fair enough.

If people want to fund the LHC with their tax refund, fair enough.

But you don't get to decide what to do with mine. That's the difference. The argument isn't, "should these be funded", but "how should these be funded". If the LHC is such a great idea, people will fund it.

[giblets]

Scientific knowledge is a public good. (I am not advocating the construction of big colliders)

[Ben Kenobi]

Scientific knowledge is a public good. (I am not advocating the construction of big colliders)

Then why does the constitution spell out the establishment of a patent office? If it's a public good, then the state should be able to own all the inventions.

[giblets]

Then why does the constitution spell out the establishment of a patent office? If it's a public good, then the state should be able to own all the inventions.

Because the state can use violence to stop some people from manufacturing certain things, so certain forms of knowledge can be made excludable. There's no feasible way to keep the results of a scientific experiment out of the minds of people who didn't help fund the experiment so the free rider problem can't be solved in this way.

[Aeson]

If people want to fund Planned Parenthood with their tax refund - fair enough.

If people want to fund the LHC with their tax refund, fair enough.

But you don't get to decide what to do with mine. That's the difference. The argument isn't, "should these be funded", but "how should these be funded". If the LHC is such a great idea, people will fund it.

I see you fall in the "moron" category who thought there would be a tax refund if the US had decided not to fund LHC.

As for the "should/how should" nonsense, I was making a relative statement of the utility of LHC vs other government spending. Your response is irrelevant to that topic, so you shouldn't have quoted it.