Not scientists? Listen buddy - Go outside and ask a random person if they'd rather observe a Higgs boson or a million dollars in their bank account. And remember that to economists, a million dollars is never a significant figure.
Physicists have a good year when they can get a thousand observations of the value of c. Economists have a bad year if they only get a quadrillion observations of the value of a dollar.
If physicists want to run an experiment, they just have to manipulate a few particles. If economists want to run an experiment, we have to manipulate Congress.
If physicists make a mistake in an experiment, maybe a few thousand people die in a lab explosion. If economists make a mistake in an experiment, maybe a few hundred million people die in an economic implosion.
If a physicist makes an important discovery, he can create a billion dollar industry. If an economist makes an important discovery, he can create a trillion dollar industry.
That being said, you are right about the fragile egos
Portfolio theory, as a theory, works remarkably well 99% of the time. Your argument is like complaining quantum physics should have no Nobel prizes because it doesn't explain dark matter.
In China, the Communist Party decides who can make a profit, who is allowed to invest, who is allowed to live in places with jobs, and summarily executes anyone who criticizes the dictating this process.
In the US, a company like 3M, with $28 billion in assets, $4 billion a year in profits, 75,000 employees, and 106 years of leading the world in innovation has to spend a decade lobbying the Government to give $1 billion to a consortium of 20 companies.
Which is communist indeed.
This doesn't make any sense. You want watches, smoke detectors, iPods, laptops, electric Civics, SUVs, satellites, F-22s, submarines, and aircraft carriers to use interchangeable batteries?
Batteries are about as versatile as "electricity" or "hydrocarbons," and are substitutes for both.
Lithium Ion batteries were invented in the US. Now, almost no company in the US produces them, because:
1) Labor unions reduce productivity per dollar
2) Logistics/Supply Chains in the US are shit compared to Japan
3) Taxes are high compared to Korea
4) Japan and Korea give massive government subsidies to these strategic technologies
Thank an economist. Seriously, what has happened so far is worse than what caused the Great Depression. Luckily, we're a hell of a lot smarter today than they were in the 1930s.
People who own homes are not "in need." About 35% of American families don't have the assets or income to ever buy a home. Homeowners are the richer part of society, not the needy part.
If you want to help the needy, the statistics say focus on the following groups:
Addicts (drug/alcohol)
Mentally Ill/Disabled
High-school dropouts
Single Mothers
Elderly
Felons
(based on income levels, poverty rates)
"Just think of a computer as hardware you can program." -- Nigel de la Tierre