[pmangels17]

Teams with 10 people need a different budget from teams with 75-100 people. Putting a budget cap would be detrimental to teams that need to spend a lot more on travel due to their numbers, especially when large teams do a lot of good work because of their numbers (not discrediting small teams, who do fantastic things as well). Because there are so many different sizes of team, a budget cap would almost limit the number of students in some ways, which would be the opposite of the goal of FIRST. Also, teams all have different fabrication technques. Some teams like to use 80/20 aluminum, while others prefer to have welding, waterjet, CNC, and sheet metal parts. Each method requires its own set of tools, which cost different amounts of money. Also, teams can only spend so much money on the robot, so capping the overal budget doesn't allow teams to do outreach, or build practice fields (many of which are open to neighboring teams either by invitation, free admission, or request). Teams that have large budgets don't save that money, they use it to further the mission of FIRST. I am not on a team with a massive budget, and I'm proud to say that we do good work for what we have, but I have nothing against teams that have lots of money, since the students on those teams work very hard to get those resources, and they put it to good use.