[ExI] What Makes People Vote Republican

[Lee Corbin]

Russell quotes Friedman

> I agree with THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN 
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/14/opinion/14friedman.html?ex=1379044800&en=c3c37388fe4618aa&ei=5124&partner=digg&exprod=digg
>
> Why would Republicans, the party of business, want to focus our country on breathing life into a 19th-century technology — fossil 
> fuels — rather than giving birth to a 21st-century technology — renewable energy?

Well, maybe because one is still profitable, and the other
still costs government subsidies?

> As I have argued before, it reminds me of someone who, on the eve
> of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is
> pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters
> and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”

Mr. Friedman should know better than philosophizing in the
absence of economics.

If it's more profitable to build new IT devices and PC,
then go forth and build them. And if it's profitable to
dig black gold out of the ground, then go dig. Simple
enough, without a lot of foolish "masterminds" thinking
they know what's best for the future, what's best for
the economy, and what's best for all of us. Go screw
yourself, and leave this stuff free of your central-control
financing and management.

> Forgetting completely 'bed wetting liberal green issues' we as technoprogressives surely want, 'need' advanced technologies to 
> flourish? I see more Nano technology in solar, hydrogen and new battery technology than I do in revamping 19th century oil based 
> technology...

We need new advanced technology just as soon as they're
profitable, and not a moment sooner. We're not as smart
as we think we are.

Lee