Posted: 1/16/2004 8:04:34 AM EDT
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In our capitalist system, there are a couple of different groups which balance the system by countering each other's influence and doing what the others can't/won't do. Ayn Rand called the primary three groups Producers, Moochers and Looters. The Moochers were basically people that spent their lives on welfare, and the looters were those who actively plundered business for their own gain. In a functioning capitalist system, there aren't enough moochers and looters to present a dangerous drag on business, and the economy continues to function properly. Atlas Shrugged presented a likely scenario in which the number of moochers and looters increased, and the producers decided to quit feeding them. Eventually, the economy ground to a halt. The producers only had to stop what they were doing and let the evil men collapse the system. I was reading about the warning from the CT and VT governors to conserve electricity, and that they could start seeing brownout and blackouts as early as last night. I wondered why, with months of warning since the total blackout of this past fall, there has been no powerplants built and no capacity added. All it would take to get a whole lot of people's attention is a vocal industry representative to stand up and warn of a wintertime blackout and explain the consequences of such. There was very little talk of this. There was blaming of Bush blah blah blah. And it hit me last night: Not only are the events of Atlas Shrugged playing out, they are ACTIVELY being MADE to play out. All that has to happen for it to become a reality is the industry reps to shut their mouth. Am I full of the nasty brown stuff, or am I close? |
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Quoted: I wondered why, with months of warning since the total blackout of this past fall, there has been no powerplants built and no capacity added. REGULATION, on many fronts cause this... It's virtually impossible to build an economically feasable emission producing factory/plant today. My personal opinion is that this is both good and bad. It's good because nobody wants to live in a sooty cesspool ah-la 19th Century London. It's bad because it stops (or dramatically increases the cost of) domestic production. The environmentalists know that they can stop pretty much anything through various laws now days. Combine this with the regulated profits that a utility is allowed, and you get total utility stagnation. Unless manufacturing comes back to America, you will see our economy continually into the toilet. Of course, a disgruntled blue (and white) collar workforce is fertile ground for a dashing socalist with a plan to 'fix' things to appear. I'm not saying that sending manufacturing offshore is a long term conspiracy, but its results will be wonderful for the nanny state types. |
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Quoted: Quoted: I wondered why, with months of warning since the total blackout of this past fall, there has been no powerplants built and no capacity added. REGULATION, on many fronts cause this... It's virtually impossible to build an economically feasable emission producing factory/plant today. My personal opinion is that this is both good and bad. It's good because nobody wants to live in a sooty cesspool ah-la 19th Century London. It's bad because it stops (or dramatically increases the cost of) domestic production. The environmentalists know that they can stop pretty much anything through various laws now days. Combine this with the regulated profits that a utility is allowed, and you get total utility stagnation. Unless manufacturing comes back to America, you will see our economy continually into the toilet. Of course, a disgruntled blue (and white) collar workforce is fertile ground for a dashing socalist with a plan to 'fix' things to appear. I'm not saying that sending manufacturing offshore is a long term conspiracy, but its results will be wonderful for the nanny state types. They learned. We didn't. John Galt, the Destroyer of Worlds, is alive and well. And he is on the rampage. |
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Well, I seem to have omitted a detail which made me post this thread. I was speaking with a young board member last night, and put forth the idea that the extreme disparity between the average salary and the CEO's salary fit perfectly in an Atlas Shrugged scenario. They bleed their company dry just that much quicker, with their own paycheck. What the average person sees is greed. What they intend to do is hasten the demise of the economy, on purpose and deliberately. Edited because I don't know what a 'bord' is. |
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Quoted: They bleed their company dry just that much quicker, with their own paycheck. What the average person sees is greed. What they intend to do is hasten the demise of the economy, on purpose and deliberately. I'm glad to be working in the non public private sector now... |
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You spot on [b]DF[/b]. Just look at what happened to Kaliforniban under Gray Davis. He KNEW for years that Kalifornia had NO PLANS to increase any electric production plants and that new power plants had not been built for almost a decade while the [u]state population skyrocketed![/u] And when they had all their "rolling blackouts" a year ago - what did they do? Did they start building a dozen new powerplants to cover their needs? No. THEY BLAMED GWBUSH AND HIS "BIG TEXAS OIL COMPANIES". There will come a day when Atlas WILL shrug and that's when the fun will REALLY start. [b]"BLOAT, cache and take names."[/b] |