Man, I apologize for how long this post got. I suggest that you just skip this.
He said it's because nobody wants us to fail. If we fail, the whole world fails. So everybody keeps propping each other up. It's all a house of cards.
Well, your husband is right about that.
By the way, who knew Limbaugh actually had something good to say? Though I'm sure his writing team did the research and he just regurgitated it, as is usually the case for most people in political commentary. Seriously though, I've hardly ever listened to anything he has said, and the few times that I did he came across as whiny, but I'm sure that he did have some good opinions sometimes.
As for the Gov. funding academic fields, I think that one of the main issues is that the people in charge that fund any projects demand results in a unrealistic amount of time, and put unnecessary pressure on people with the constant threat to pull funding, and that can impact the productivity of the projects, as well as the well-being of the people involved.
Sure, you can look at it and say that they are providing the funding, and they obviously want results for what they are spending, but as we discussed before, everybody in our current society expects and demands immediate results, and it spreads across every field and industry, from the military to Hollywood, and to the average person walking down the street, everybody wants instant satisfaction.
The issue with that is that things take time, and nobody has any patience any more. The most important scientific discoveries in human history didn't happen overnight, they took years of research and dedication from people that believed they would make the world a better place.
Look at how Penicillin was created, for as long as modern medicine had been practiced until that point, everybody agreed that mould was seen as a source of germs and infection, and nobody would have ever thought that it could be used for something good, that is until Dr. Alexander Fleming was doing research on Staphylococcus bacteria, and the results of his research led to the creation of the antibiotic that saved countless lives. On the other side of that, they have spent years trying to cure Cancer and other diseases and have had no significant results yet, but that doesn't mean that they won't find the cure one day, it's just going to take time to do it.
I find it both disturbing and hilarious that a college will nurture athletes and encourage them to put their bodies at risk and do everything possible to make sure that they have it easy from a academic standpoint. Yeah, student-athletes don't get paid for participating in college sports, but some are given partial or full athletic scholarships and treated like heroes until they go pro. But if a student wants to do something meaningful and important in the medical or scientific field then they are limited in their resources, and treated without respect just so that athletes can destroy their bodies kicking a ball around.
The same could be said about Hollywood and actors, they waste unimaginable amounts to make movies and pay actors, instead of using the funds to help people. They could eliminate poverty in this world today, where no human being has to suffer, and humanity could begin a new age of prosperity and expand ourselves to be so much more than we are, but every time someone even mentions that we should go to the Moon or Mars and that we could further ourselves as a species, people start complaining that it's too expensive, and it would be too much time and effort, because they will use any excuse possible as long as their athletes and celebrities get paid. They live like kings while the rest of us actually have to work hard and build something for ourselves, which brings me to this...
Voltaire's, "Cultivate your own garden."
This is pure truth, and it made me reflect on my life.
I don't know if I would be where I am today if I didn't go through what I did when I was younger. I've mentioned before about what life was like for us, and I think that by not having everything handed to me like so many people, it made me hungry and aggressive when I had to go out and work at age 13 while everybody else sat around playing video games.
When we were living with my father we had financial security, and aside from treating us like dirt, he wouldn't ever give us anything good, and I don't even mean anything expensive, he would act like getting a $5 toy for us was some sort of monumental event, and he would always swear at us after he got it and make us feel like asking for a $5 toy was something that we should feel bad about, as if it would have ruined him to get it for us. I can remember my mother would buy stuff for us and try to hide it from him, of course my younger siblings would be playing with it in front of him and he knew he didn't give it to us, and then he would go beat my mother for it.
I realize that I'm going into a tangent here, but I guess what I'm trying to say is that when my mother walked out on him we struggled, which led me to go to work at a young age, and taught me not only the importance of family, but responsibility and that working hard for yourself is the only way to get what you want in life, because nobody else is going to give you anything.
When my kids ask me for something it is my absolute pleasure to give it to them, even if I think the show it's from is stupid, or I don't understand it, I know it makes them happy, and that's the only thing that matters. I also feel good when I buy stuff for their friends, I know that some of their parents can't afford to get them some things, and even though they tell me that I don't have to do it, I still do because I was a kid once, and I know what it was like to always be told NO and how that can make a kid feel.
Some people will say that I'm spoiling them, and that by giving them everything they want they won't learn to work for themselves, you know what I say to those people? Go F**K yourself. I have been on the other side of that, I know what it's like to go to bed without dinner, to wear the same clothes every single day because you can't afford new clothes, to live in a cold house in the winter because my mother couldn't pay the heating bill, I know what it's like to suffer. I've already had the hard talk with Sam, and she knows some of the things from my youth, and one day when Phoebe is older I will tell her as well.
I teach my kids to appreciate the things they have in this life, that their parents work hard to give them what we didn't have growing up. I teach them to be considerate, compassionate, and respectful towards everybody, and not to discriminate against anybody. With that said, we also teach them that there are bad people in this world, and that if the situation arises that they have the right to hurt that person to defend themselves.
Along with the businesses and property that we have built, I have made some solid investments, like buying land and through the collectibles I bought when I was working in my teens, some of which I purchased for what was at the time considered expensive, and today sells for insane prices, you would be shocked to know just how much old comics, cards, and toys can go for, especially during the collectible boom of the pandemic. The market has plateaued since then, but at the time if you were selling then you were getting prices unheard of in the industry.
I know that my kids will have security if something was to happen to me, and if I got killed, or died in a accident then the insurance payout would be enough for them to live on until they are grandparents. That is the foundation that I've laid for them. With the responsibility that we teach them, hopefully they become independent and make something for themselves and they won't even need it.
I feel that a day of reckoning must be coming.
Oh, you are absolutely right about that. I think that day will be in about 4 years. I won't delve too far into it, but let's just say that the bridges that are being burned today are going to have some serious repercussions for our nation after the next shift change happens.
