# Claim: the NSA records and stores 80% of U.S. phone calls

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claim-the-nsa-records-and-stores-80-of-u-s-phone-calls/692912>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [July 12, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claim-the-nsa-records-and-stores-80-of-u-s-phone-calls/692912 "2014-07-12T03:31:57Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 9

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**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\
**Post date:** [July 12, 2014, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claim-the-nsa-records-and-stores-80-of-u-s-phone-calls/692912/9 "2014-07-12T10:49:13Z")

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> [@Walton\_Firm](#):
>
> That’s just silly. Even in an generally functional democracy, the government is a subset of the population whose [incentives](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_choice) do not always match up with those of the population as a whole. Just because people get to have some limited influence on what the government does by pressing a button once every few years, that does not mean that they cannot criticize it or that it isn’t logically possible for the government to do something which is not in the best interest of the people.

If the government was not acting in the best interest of the people, it would rapidly cease to be the government. In this country, we achieve this revolution by doing what you so glibly describe as “pressing a button once every few years”.

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