[aprssig] I Apologize!

[Ray McKnight]

You're still missing the point.

NWS wasn't chartered simply to give the public weather forecasts.

As with many government services, their PRIMARY purpose is to

Support other government agencies.  Whether or not our income tax

Funds their budget, NWS primarily lives to serve agencies like the FAA

And our military.  I feel much better about whatever funds we spend

Going to ensure that the commercial airline pilot in the cockpit of my

Flight has an accurate forecast, that the Space Shuttle probably won't

Crash on my house during reentry - does it really matter that much if

Johnny's soccer match gets rained out?  I think one of the biggest reasons

For NWS was to help reduce the tremendous loss of life and revenue to

Commercial shipping - thus, the NOAA Weather Broadcasts.  The other

Stuff is just icing on the cake, and I thank them for taking the time to do
it.

Be glad you live in a country that has a NWS - a lot of places don't, or

At least can't afford more than a handful of forecasters and little
equipment.

 

I do agree with your point of commercial interests who derive the majority
of

Their data from agencies like NWS for free then package it and sell it to
the

Public.  I think it's wrong, at least unethical, but obviously not illegal
at this time.

They should pay for the data.  But that's just my opinion.  Even if you file
a FOIA

(Freedom of Information Act) request, you have to pay a fee for some poor
schmuck

to research the data, make copies and compile it.  But as a general rule
fees that

the government collects don't stay with their own agency, thus they incur
all the

work with no reimbursement.

 

And when is this going to happen - this having to pay for NWS forecasts?

Are they getting their own Pay-Per-View channel?  That's one of the only

Good things about our economy - you can simply decide NOT to do business

With folks that resell government data.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org [mailto:aprssig-bounces at lists.tapr.org]
On Behalf Of KA8VIT
Sent: Monday, January 08, 2007 12:26
To: TAPR APRS Mailing List
Subject: Re: [aprssig] I Apologize!

 

I agree.. people expect too much from the Government.

Funny though..  we pay for weather data via taxes..  and now we are
going to have to buy it from a private concern, that the government
GAVE it to for free!

Regardless of what the government uses our income tax money for,
we still pay more than one-quarter of our income for it.




 
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