From: John Clark (jonkc@worldnet.att.net)
Date: Thu Apr 27 2000 - 14:53:40 MDT
Michael S. Lorrey <mike@datamann.com> Wrote:
>>Me:
>>if you ignore natures advice you go broke, as well you should.
>Sure, thats a given. Then what happens?
Then you either get smart or you rely on the kindness of strangers.
> You are a) assuming Mr. Fusion Inc would want to hire union workers,
What's with you and union workers? I mean, you're being so 20'th century.
>and b) need to hire anywhere near as many people to produce machines
>that produce the same power demands as the former energy industry.
It doesn't matter. Energy that was virtually free and limitless would open up all
sorts of opportunities that just aren't practical now, and all those endeavors would
need personnel.
>From an economic viewpoint, defense spending is an excellent incubator for
>research and development.
"Excellent" is not quite the word I would use to categorize the results obtained from
hundreds of billions spent by the military on research and development, "terrible"
or "meager" would be better. I can see 3 reasons for this:
1) There is far more development than research, and the development is for things
that have little or no use in civilian life; stealth technology for example.
2) The cost of something is of no interest to the military mind, hence you get a B1
bomber that is quite literally worth more than its weight in gold. This mindset conflicts
with that of consumers and stockholders who would rather not spend $900 for
a Momentum Impulse Driver and will just get a $3.98 hammer at Home Depot instead.
3) If they do find something interesting they keep it secret for years.
>When grain shipments to europe got cut off, and interest rates rose
And neither event had anything to do with technology or productivity, it has everything to
do with government and civil servants who were not as smart as they thought they were.
>food was left rotting on the docks and in the fields, prices collapsed
No argument, it's a matter of historical fact, but I don't see how that helps your case.
John K Clark jonkc@att.net
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