<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:14pt"><div><span>Spike wrote:</span></div><div><span></span> </div><div><span>"We here in the states are in the middle of an unfolding scandal which may<br>well take down our current government."</span></div><div><span></span> </div><div><span>The main stream media will likely let the story die so the pressure on</span></div><div><span>the current government will not reach levels required to bring down</span></div><div><span>the administration. The DOJ has had a number of scandals going on</span></div><div><span>that would have brought down other governments.</span></div><div><span></span> </div><div><span>Dennis </span></div><div> </div><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 14pt;"><div style="font-family: times new roman, new york, times, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><font
size="2" face="Arial"><div style="margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); height: 0px; line-height: 0; font-size: 0px;" class="hr" contentEditable="false" readonly="true"></div><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">From:</span></b> spike <spike66@att.net><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> 'ExI chat list' <extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org><br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Saturday, September 17, 2011 7:43 AM<br><b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: [ExI] millionaires and billionaires<br></font><br><br>> On Behalf Of BillK<br>Subject: Re: [ExI] millionaires and billionaires<br><br>2011/9/17 Dennis May wrote:<br>>>... You meet millionaires all the time and likely don't know it...<br><br>>...Agreed. Millionaires are not considered really rich these days.<br>Especially if you include property and pension funds and other assets not<br>readily
available for spending. And yes, most ordinary millionaires are just<br>like the people next door. (Us ordinary millionaires must stick together,<br>after all). ;)<br><br>Ja. Thousandaires stick together, billionaires stick together, why not the<br>middle guys? Our government is telling us millionaires and billionaires<br>need to pay more taxes. Presumably thousandaires and millionaires need to<br>pay less. Somewhere in the middle should be a break-even.<br><br>>...I was referring to people whose annual *income* is in the billions,<br>never mind their total assets...<br><br>BillK, this commentary really goes off into the bizarre from here. I see<br>conflation of assets with income, which is a common thing actually, but<br>needs careful reasoning.<br><br>>... These people don't even think about the cost of something...<br><br>People who have a ton of money definitely think about the cost of something.<br>That's
why they have a ton of money. Consider high production<br>manufacturing. If someone thinks carefully about the cost of something, and<br>develops a slightly cheaper way of making that item, they make a ton of<br>money. The rest of us benefit from getting the item cheaper.<br><br>>...(But I suppose there must be some nice guys in there as well. All<br>generalisations have exceptions. Not all lawyers or parking officials are<br>totally evil).<br><br>Lawyers and parking officials? Come now, me lad.<br><br>>...But even the coal and oil corporations are slowly diversifying into<br>renewable resources. The problem that society has is that they are<br>deliberately diversifying slowly, so as to extract the maximum profit from<br>dwindling resources... BillK<br><br>Indeed? <br><br>We here in the states are in the middle of an unfolding scandal which may<br>well take down our current government. The company is right up the
street,<br>Solyndra. I applied to work there two days before it all collapsed. My<br>neighbor across the street was a mid-level manager. He was struggling to<br>get people to man a third shift at the plant when he came in to find<br>everything locked and the feds carrying out boxes of paper and hard discs.<br>Now we hear there is a second local company which took government guaranteed<br>loans to develop solar power, and it too is busted, and it too is apparently<br>corrupt. Stay tuned. Perhaps the widespread public perception that energy<br>companies are intentionally diversifying slowly is enabling corruption in<br>the green energy industry. The corrupt schemes are making it more difficult<br>for the honest smart guys, because it soaks up capital into losing schemes<br>that would otherwise be invested in good profitable ones.<br><br>A profitable company is a good company.<br><br>Watch the unfolding Solyndra and
LightSquared stories. Both are examples of<br>what happens when governments get involved in the investment biz.<br><br>spike<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>extropy-chat mailing list<br><a href="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org" ymailto="mailto:extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org">extropy-chat@lists.extropy.org</a><br><a href="http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat" target="_blank">http://lists.extropy.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/extropy-chat</a><br><br><br></div></div></div></body></html>