The "self contained" part is only important in that it lets you use busybox or "from scratch" as your container runtime environment which has a very tiny cybersecurity surface area compared to, say, ubuntu or even alpine which has a bunch of system libraries your go binary isn't using, but which could still get flagged for having vulnerabilities.

Minimizing dependencies of the go binary is a separate, but equally important task that reduces the cybersecurity surface area of your go binary itself to just "the go standard library" instead of "go stdlib + a dozen github packages"

Whenever I am working with a NodeJS project I pity the fool who has to do SCA because the CVE surface area is enormous compared to go, which has a fairly batteries-included stdlib

Most complexity is unnecessary. Adding dependencies to your project exponentially increases your project's surface area, which in turn increases its regulatory/cybersecurity burden, especially if your software is a medical device, munition, etc. Why is Echo/Gin/Gorilla/etc better/more secure than vanilla Go's mux? Just anecdotal, but we use the Echo web framework for Go and it's caused nothing but headaches. It does magical XML parsing by default even though we don't deal with XML which gets us flagged in pen tests. Updating from v4 to v5 broke production for us because they made an undocumented server config change that makes all requests have a 30 second timeout. Meanwhile vanilla go has the ability to register routes and middlewares, so what value is Echo bringing to the table? Ditto for lots of other unnecessary dependencies. A lot of times we just need one little thing out of the whole package, and in those cases a little copying (or a little AI generation) is better than a little dependency.

A static go binary with minimal dependencies running in a busybox container has a tiny CVE footprint when run through grype/snyk, etc. Do the same for a NodeJS app with zillions of dependencies running in an ubuntu container and you'll spend all day triaging CVEs.

I'm not saying "roll your own crypto" but I am saying "axios-like packages don't make sense to use any more in a world where AI+vanilla accomplishes the same thing"

[1] https://go-proverbs.github.io/

There's something really satisfying about a go binary with minimal dependencies running in a busybox docker container.

You rebutted with (paraphrasing) "no, you can't build compilers with LLMs because LLMs don't invent new things"

I used a lot of words to demonstrate that you can invent new things with LLMs, including compilers, as long as it's a human + LLM iterative loop and not an unsupervised LLM running in a vacuum.

The "smarter/better" attributes you are worried about LLMs not having happen between iterative steps, when the human is inspecting the current state of the software and compares it to the desired state of the software (in their mind's eye). The human then course corrects for the next iteration.

This would be like if Michelangelo carved the David using a robotic 6-axis chisel. It takes him 1 month instead of 3 years because he can convey his initial vision to the robot and then iteratively refine the granite until it matches his vision.

You can try to claim LLMs don't invent new things, but humans using LLMs absolutely invent new things (source: myself).

I tried out the calculator and put in all your changes, and the budget wasn't balanced, there was still a 1.4T deficit (as opposed to the current 1.9T deficit). The app only claims the budget is "sustainable" now because it assumes GDP keeps growing at the same rate (which might not be true), and if so we'll hit a 3%-of-GDP "deficit target" in 25 years. Also adjusting a negative tax rate kind of seems like it is, in fact, reducing spending (i.e. the federal government reduces the amount of tax credits it gives out). This also assumes the federal government will not introduce new programs, new spending, etc. So really all you did was reduce the deficit by .5T along with a hope and a prayer that the economy will continue to grow at the same rate for the next 25 years (while at the same time the federal government does not increase spending). I personally think it's bad to have a deficit at all and that we should work towards zero deficit and eventually surplus (yes, I know there are all sort of growth hacks and such you can do with debt, but historically politicians have succumbed to slippery slope deficit increases and so for that reason alone I think holding politicians to a zero deficit standard is best -- do it for a few generations and now there's a precedent that protects us from getting into the situation we are currently in). To me a "balanced budget" is that your spending is <= your income.

Anyway, interesting calculator app. I do see the value in raising taxes for sure, but it's not easy politically to raise taxes and it's also not easy politically to cut spending (whichever group likes the thing you cut will scream), so ultimately it might have to be a hybrid solution where democrats increase taxes without increasing spending when they are in power and republicans cut spending without decreasing taxes when they are in power. When I say that out loud though it seems like a pipe dream, sigh...