you mean the part where we specifically added to their constitution that the oil fields belong to the people of Iraq?
I mean in the good old days when you conquested you plundered. That would at least fund our wars. But no we have to be all lawful good when we do it
These are subsidies that gov offers. He has not stolen anything.
In addition, Kock broths get more than that EACH YEAR. Do you think that the neo-cons are going after them? And no, the tea-party will not be going after Musk OR kock brothers. As such, the GOP will be split on this.
oil power conspiracy theory drivel
.. to what what industries get out of government. Heck, some oil tycoons saw the first gulf war where USA kicked Saddam out of Kuwait, and figured it would be a cakewalk to kick him out of Baghdad and install some puppets and get all the oil in Iraq on the cheap. Got two oil men elected as POTUS and VPOTUS, launched a smoke and mirrors campaign and got us into a war that has taken 1 trillion and counting. If the gamble paid off, they would have gained a few billion dollars. But it didn't, but they didn't lose 1 trillion dollars we, the taxpayers did.
Compared to the shenanigans of the coal and oil businesses, even if it is true, this 5 billion is nothing. But most likely it is a hit piece commissioned by the same people who brought you the Iraq war. That one was expansion attempt. Now they are defending the home turf, public utilities using gas and coal. Entrenched monopolies who have never faced competition, lightly regulated by revolving door politicians, lobbyists and company men.
Can you explain how the war got us cheap oil? You're borderline conspiracy theorest. They were part of OPEC before just as they are now, pumping out just as much before as after
ForceScourge
It's not just the money. Don't forget about all lives that are lost in wars. And people suffering from air pollution caused by burning fossil fuels.
lets not forget the domestic hunger problems we've solved by having cheap transportation.
funding isn't what we need, Washington DC spends $31k/student, and has some of the dumbest kids in existence.
There's a (rather disturbing IMHO) school of thought that thinks government is the ultimate economic engine..
there is?
ok, so we're in agreement. Hold the auto industry accountable, and hold the banking industry accountable
"can't even compete in their niche without goverment subsidies" - then you must be PISSED about the government bailing out established auto companies.
I'm from Detroit and work in the auto industry, so I'll state my conflict of interest first. You might be mad about the auto bailouts, but you need to understand that the bank crisis created the auto crisis. The auto makers need lots of credit, and when that dried up, it was hard for all of us in the auto industry (not just the big three). We've built our society around easy credit for better or worse. So, I think it's more than a little unfair to act like the auto companies were up shit's creek purely because of bad business decisions. They based their cash flow around easy credit, and when that dried up for a while, it was a big deal. Think of the kind of cash burn a 200,000+ person company has. Sure, the automakers could have been healthier, but the auto crisis wasn't 100% their fault either.
Toyota and Honda didn't have any problems during that crisis, and they (Toyota) even have mandatory 2 hours unpaid overtime each day (you're paid 6 hours) in case something like this happens so they can scale everything back.
They also don't make dumbass cars that look ugly and break after 175k miles
This.
When you consider that there are now over 1600 billionaires, how many of them are "using their powers for good" to the degree that Musk does? Sure there's the Gates Foundation, and other philanthropic efforts, there's the Tata Motors guy in India... some VC guys like Khosla... But out of 1600 people, what a tiny percentage of them even show up on the radar screen, let alone those who are doing "cool stuff" with their immense wealth and power.
If every billionaire used his wealth like Musk does, I wouldn't mind this staggering inequality so much. Sadly, Musk is more an exception than the rule.
and we must rule the exception.
atlas shrugged
you honestly think SpaceX costs more than Lockheed Martin and Boeing to run?
it was simply a 'none of the above and/or I disapprove of this poll' option
reply to the other comment
An author's copyrights can be assigned or transferred to a third party. This leaves the author with only the same rights as any member of the general public. (There are a few narrow exceptions, but nothing that would prevent the possibility of an author infringing on the copyright of a work he created)
It's also possible for a person who prepares a work to not be considered the author. This is the case for works made for hire.
And of course copyright isn't mandatory, though that just leads to works being in the public domain, so at least there's no danger of infringement there.
Without life, Biology itself would be impossible.
