http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/09/15/despite-stimulus-funding-solyndra-and-4-other-companies-have-hit-rock-bottom/
I guess things could be worse. Al Gore could be president and we would all be living under glass roofs like cave men.
Look at the money given to these companies (our money) that still went belly-up.
Ask yourselves what gives the government the right to pick and choose which businesses get government support. (None of them should.)
I have engaged in a lot of fierce debate on this site for expressing my doubts about Global Warming. I have now come to the conclusion that this Green stuff is a colossal scam.
Green jobs. Green energy. Green technology. It's all a bunch of...
What truly is green is the money. I hope Congress will follow it.
Cave men living under glass roofs?
ReplyDeleteNow I know Gary's sense of the history of technology is off base. Could he have meant to say grass roofs? That's not in a cave either. That's a hut built on the surface.
When should government be providing funding to businesses? A lot less often than it does. Tell you what, you agree to pull the subsidies and tax credits from the oil companies, and I'll agree on the "green energy" subsidies.
You and I might agree on that, but the Republicans you idolize would NEVER agree to such a deal.
Now, taking a step back...
...government has a limited, but legitimate role in providing credits or grants to business in one of two circumstances.
1) There would be a benefit to the entire community if a business located somewhere, but the business faces extra costs in doing so. E.g., there is a big empty industrial site in the middle of the city, ugly, housing rats, breeding vandalism. If a functional, prospering business opened a plant there, it would be good for the neighborhood, the jobs would be closer to the people who are out of work. It is legitimate to offer subsidies to defray the extra costs the business would face in order to locate there. No more, no less.
2) Here is where there is some legitimate room for "green energy."
There is good reason to believe that the entire population would benefit if a new technology could reach critical mass to sustain itself, but until it gets there, per unit production is too expensive to be competitive. E.g., because there are gas stations all over, gas-powered cars are more convenient, and because they are mass produced on a larger scale, cheaper. That's why I drive a Kia Rio, not a Prius. (Prius drivers are people who would have spent $26,000 on a car anyway.)
So, subsidies for a limited time to equalize the calculus of individual purchase decisions is legitimate, but then, the makers have to ramp up production within a reasonable time, and bring the price down, as the credit is phased out. There should always be a sunset.
Solyndra's product -- after I got around to checking the specs -- sounds like a good one for roofs in the upper midwest where you have snow for several months of the year. Less need to shovel, more electricity from light reflected from the snow below the cylinders. They failed because solar cells can perfectly well be made in China and sold at Wal Mart.
What's the FBI investigating? We don't know. Even Gary Fouse hasn't found out, or he would have told us.