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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (14691)	11/1/2003 12:08:32 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Respond to of 793639

Let's start here: For some reason that totally escapes me, you think that wild Tulipmania of the late '90s was normal economics. You just can't see it was a bubble and was doomed. It was particularly wild here in SV and you're one of the ones who will pine for it for the rest of your days. Instead of blaming Bush for the present, you should blame Slick Willie for tolerating the wild crazy insane speculation. EVERYONE with half a brain KNEW that most of those internet "companies" having the wild IPOs were crap and were doomed. And that 22-year-olds with freshly minted BSCS degrees weren't worth $125,000 plus options. Now start there, look at what economics looked like before Bubba's bubble and you might start getting your bearings again. Until then, you are lost at sea without a compass. Hey, Lizzie, there is sense to that POV. There are those of us who recognized what was going on and got out of the market before the crash. I got out in '97 and '98 because I couldn't BELIEVE what I was seeing. Were these people nuts? Yeah, they were. I got out early and missed some rather nice potential profits- -but I got out with nice gains and intact. Now why don't you spend a little time reading some economic history and you might get a clue. Just two years ago, the high-tech region was the economic envy of the world. But Silicon Valley's shattered economy now reels from one of the worst job markets in the nation. Yeah. This area was Ground Zero for the insanity. And you're surprised it got hit in the crash? Did you REALLY think that insanity would roll on forever? That Silicon Valley could keep marketing scams forever and people would keep believing forever? That your income would continue going up something like 5X in a few years? Over the past two years, Silicon Valley has lost 174,000 jobs, or a staggering one out of six jobs in the region. Yeah, it's really ugly when bubbles burst. But burst they will. Still, some observers believe Silicon Valley has offered a tepid embrace for the president's tax-cutting proposals because of the perception, according to at least one technology official, that the president's plan has few direct benefits for the tech industry. The President, if you're unaware, has a NATIONAL economy to think about, not just some hundreds of square miles around San Francisco Bay. Our local hucksters did a great job and hooked suckers all over the nation with their deadly swan songs. There's a lot more than just those few hundred square miles to straighten out. "SEMI's member firms by and large do not offer these dividends, so that proposal is less important to us than it is to other industries," So national economic policy should be dictated by one industry? People don't eat or drive computers and software. You may call them antique smokestack industries. A lot of Americans in a lot of other places call them "jobs". Yet it's not as if President Bush and Silicon Valley are actively opposed. Both Bush and tech executives seek to spur the nation's drowsy economy. But some tech officials believe it's more that the two are on different economic pages. The president's goals don't necessarily match up with all of Silicon Valley's needs. Uh, yeah. There's more involved here than the next fake dot-com IPO. The industry also hopes to win a permanent tax credit on research and development. Bush supports this proposal. Yes? "We are very much in favor of the elimination of taxes on dividends," said Margaret Lauderback, an executive with TechNet, a Palo Alto-based industry group. "Our companies don't pay dividends, but our customers certainly do. We are very supportive of the president's tax cut plans." Yes? Gee, maybe they ought to think a little more about dividends for shareholders and less about providing options for officers. What do you think? "Could you have designed a bill to benefit Silicon Valley? That seems to be precislely what you want to stoke the next tech bubble. Sure. Could you have designed a bill for the steel industry? Sure," Mitchell said. "What matters is the president's tax cut will help the overall economy, and that will be better for every sector of the economy. No industry got everything it wanted. No industry should." Apparenetly not everyone in the valley is nuts, though. There are many who believe the internet will not be a key policy priority for the president-elect. Oh. Well. Givewn its record for scam and BS, maybe it shouldn't be. Mr Bush's priorities are of great interest to the technology industry in general but not specifically the internet industry, says Mr McClure. Oh. Well. Maybe the idea is a bit broader than your thinking. His priorities include: * Expansion of H1-B visas, which would expand the number of foreign high-tech workers that would be allowed to emigrate to the US * Promotion of biotechnology * Reform of technology export rules to allow for the export of more advanced technology while protecting national security. Gee, he doesn't sound THAT hostile. BTW, it appears the execs of the industry you are pushing are out for those visas you hate. Notice that? Those things didn't pop out of nowhere, Lizzie. The Boyz In The Valley worked long and hard to bring in that cheap labor you deplore. And not just Larry Ellison, BTW. Mr Bush also has a number of proposals with regards to the internet and international trade, including: * establishing the internet as a worldwide duty and tariff-free zone * eliminating non-tariff trade barriers to trade in information technology * strengthening efforts to combat piracy of US intellectual property and ideas. Yes? Microsoft? So The Boyz aren't just pro-tech, they're pro-THEIR-tech and screw everybody else. And they think everybody else should feel sympathy for them. Uh huh. Thank you for doing such a good job of making my case.