But we spend nearly $200 billion just paying salaries. We spend the most because we are also an expensive country to live in and that means paying the folks who volunteer a decent wage.

We would have to significantly downsize the military personnel and pretty much operate as homeland defense only.

This comment doesn’t even make sense. For example, the USA government spent 37% compared to the GDP.

If you mean 10% of government spending towards science then that question makes sense.

The USA spends about $75billion of the $800billion defense budget on R&D. It spends another $120billion on non-defense R&D.

Which is about 1/31 of federal spending for the US.

What’s wrong with Signal besides requiring a phone number?

That’s my point. Let people make that decision if they want it for free with no privacy or paid with privacy.

It’s a scam how much we are tracked without real consent and/or compensation.

That we are not paid for our browsing data, app data, etc.

You’re right. I was wrong. There is a big difference between websites and ISPs, and in my eagerness to respond I skipped that basic understanding.

I feel like their should be basic policing of the most horrific things, e.g. child porn. But you’re right, it’s impossible to filter everything out in a timely manner by websites.

Right, so then they should be operated as a public telecom and be regulated as Title II. This would allow them to be free from such lawsuits.

However, they want to remain as private for profit companies so they should be held responsible for not acting responsibly.