original by
Romina Boccia and Matthew Sabas

December 30, 2013

What is the government really spending money on?

The government has a lot of money. More than you can imagine. They also have more power than you can imagine, so what happens when you have two of things. Most of the time you spend it on necessary things like funding for schools and the community etc. Then they get carried away and spent it on things that they think they need. 

For example, The Interior Department spent nearly $100,000 to install an outhouse on an Alaskan trail, which includes a single toilet with no internal plumbing. Why and how do put an outhouse in the middle of nowhere? It's a trial, no one needs to use the restroom when they're using that trail.

Another one is when they put "lavish" bus stop with heated pavement was built in Arlington, VA, but it has failed to keep commuters warm or dry. Alright.. who needs a heated bus stop... I'm pretty sure no one is going to be travelling when the snow is four feet high.

This one is weird. The State Department went on a bender the week before the government shutdown, purchasing $5 million of "exquisite" crystal glassware to presumably drink the $400,000 in booze they purchased in 2013. Why would you buy expensive glasses to drink alcohol that was already expensive. First of all you can't buy alcohol before you have glasses to drink out of. You also shouldn't buy expensive glass when they sell them at the dollar store or at wal-mart.

This one is interesting. They spent $82,000 for The National Institutes of Health to fund a study “to use Twitter for surveillance on depressed people”. Twitter is already popular and by using twitter to spy on depressed people is scary and controlling. No one needs to see what people do in their personal life on social media.