Comments on: You can’t be too rich or too dirty

By: Paul K

Paul K — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 17:06:20 +0000

jcwinnie — you are showing math skills a la Barack Obama (his proposals don’t add up). 1973 was 35 years ago. Time flies when you’re having fun.

By: Joe

Joe — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:21:29 +0000

jcwinnie — you are showing your age a la John McCain!

By: jcwinnie

jcwinnie — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:46:46 +0000

Gee, I am just not with it anymore.

I thought “dirty” was slang for an enforcement type person, who takes bribes to look the other way. Made famous by Frank Serpico http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070666/

(Serpico, 1973) Oh, yeah! That was 25 years ago.

By: hapa

hapa — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:31:38 +0000

i had a dream once where there were infinite universes all exactly the same, because elementary particles were intelligent and were trying to see how many identical universes they could keep running at once. the ones that weren’t busy keeping it all working spun around making rude jokes about moss.

That day will come. That day must come…or else we’re all screwed.

a million million srirams all writing that at once. a million million hapas quoting it. a million million million futures waiting for the train to leave the station.

By: Sriram

Sriram — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:36:13 +0000

Unfortunately lobbying is just one of those wonderful things that comes with democracy and laissez-faire free market capitalism. After all, who’s a blame an honest Coal or Oil CEO from rent-seeking or attempting to capture politicians (especially when the majority of these politicians lend themselves so easily to corruptibility).

Unfortunately the only way to fight such money and power from energy companies seeking to fill their own coffers is through grassroots efforts which educate people in their local neighborhoods and awaken them to the manners in which their government has been stolen from them and their own futures jeopardized.

That day will come. That day must come…or else we’re all screwed.

By: Ronald

Ronald — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:31:45 +0000

1.8 million, 3 million, 2.8 million.

So what. That’s not so much.

It’s not that these companies are spending so much money on lobbying.

It’s that everybody else is not spending money on lobbying.

My state has about 5 million people in it, about 3 million adults. If every adult in my state decided to donate 500 dollars a year politically, that would be about 1.5 billion dollars. That would change the politics in the US and thus some in the world.

It’s not that companies are so motivated to have laws made in their favor, it’s that regular people are so disinterested in doing something about it.

If we think that Global Warming is a going to be a problem to the next 50 generations, those that think it is a problem should be more outspoken about it.

I don’t blame companies for lobbying for what is in their self interest. That is their respondsibility to their company, shareholders and stakeholders. As our business laws are set up, these companies have no respondsibilities to the next 50 generations. Which is why we need laws that are respondsible to the next 50 generations. Which is also why Global Warming progress can’t just be a voluntary effort. The laws have to reflect the needs of the planet for 50 generations as requested and enforced by the present living generations. Decision makers of companies are required to do the best for their own company, not some voluntary effort that would be best for the next 50 generations.

By: Peter Foley

Peter Foley — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 03:04:30 +0000

Joe, Just how much does the coal industry spend on lobbying as a percentage of sales? I bet it is a fraction of the the percentage spent by the various solar welfare queens and kings.
Thank god the coal companies are profitable and are still free to forward rational government.

By: Earl Killian

Earl Killian — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:58:39 +0000

Here’s an excerpt from one of the books David Benson linked to:
“Peer polities then then tend to undergo long periods of upwardly-spiraling competitive costs, and downward marginal returns. This is terminated finally by domination of one and acquisition of a new energy subsidy (as in Republican Rome and Warring States China), or by mutual collapse (as among the Mycenaeans and the Maya). Collapse, if and when it comes again, will this time be global. No longer can any individual nation collapse. World civilization will disintegrate as a whole. Competitors who evolve as peers collapse in like manner.”
Reassuring isn’t it?

By: David B. Benson

David B. Benson — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 02:16:51 +0000

“Collapse Coming Soon to a Civilization Near You!”

http://keithakers.com/Collapse.htm

A review of three books on collapse. (Also links to related essays.)

Relevant to large-scale lobbying.