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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Dierks who wrote (301201)	8/24/2006 7:47:57 AM
From: RetiredNow	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579068

Hi Peter, I'm actually alot more aligned with you than you think on government spending. Almost always, the government is a very inefficient spender of our money. However, sometimes an industry can't really get started unless massive scale is brought to bear. The space industry spun off so many new technologies that are now private industries. Space exploration really put us decades ahead of everyone else and boosted our economy to where it is today. I agree with you that the government didn't allow for privatization quickly enough, but we see it starting to happen now with all those space tourist companies coming online. Another example is the Internet. Many many technologies like the Internet get started as a national security initiative. Now with private companies taking advantage of the Internet, untold wealth has accrued to Americans. So there are plenty of examples where government initiative kicked off industries that created massive wealth. I believe energy independence can be another such industry, but we are already losing the race to the Japanese. They hold most of the patents on successful Hybrid technologies. That is a damn shame and I can lay that at the door of our stupid, technology averse leaders. The writing is on the wall. Energy DEpendence can reduce this country to bankruptcy, or we can turn that into this country's next great opportunity. Which course do you prefer we follow? Should we all just sit back and hope that private industry can overcome all the barriers to entry on its own? It might happen, but I guarantee you it will take twice as long and our national security will become increasingly imperiled as these Islamo-fascists continue to get paid out of our wallets. I'd rather we do something now and impoverish the Islamo-fascists, build a new industry to bring wealth into this country, and do something good for the environment, all in one fell swoop. Think about it. 15 years from today we could be energy independent. What a great legacy for our children.