Bill Gates in the need for R&D investment.

His take.

America’s Secret Weapon | Bill Gates

its good to see it trumpeted, but its only a secret to those who haven't studied economics.....thats a majority especially it seems of politicians so maybe it isn't that well known. Innovation, whether it results in productivity gains or IP ownership is about all there is preventing the convergence of income/standards of living. The jobs that have gone to China are the ones where we've failed to have higher domestic costs offset by higher productivity (a key result of innovation)

Dope is legal in Washington isn't it? Clearly Billy boy has been smoking some. Private enterprise is inept? The government should take over? Dude, there is nothing in the world more inept than gov bureaucrats with a never ending supply of our tax dollars.

moonlight machine said:

Dope is legal in Washington isn't it? Clearly Billy boy has been smoking some. Private enterprise is inept? The government should take over? Dude, there is nothing in the world more inept than gov bureaucrats with a never ending supply of our tax dollars.

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Private commerce only works where market forces do.
Monopoly and external price deferment break that model.

Such as in Bill Gates and Microsoft?

moonlight machine said:

Dope is legal in Washington isn't it? Clearly Billy boy has been smoking some. Private enterprise is inept? The government should take over? Dude, there is nothing in the world more inept than gov bureaucrats with a never ending supply of our tax dollars.

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That's not what Gates said. Rather, that private enterprise is self-interested, looking for personal gain even if at the expense of others (or in the case of climate, all of us). In cases like that, Gates (a former self-interested CEO himself) wants government to get involved.

And he is entirely correct- a well know and broadly demonstrated economic and environmental principle is at work:

Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is and always will be the role of Government to influence individual entities actions for the common good.

Trboatworks said:

And he is entirely correct- a well know and broadly demonstrated economic and environmental principle is a at work in these instances:

Tragedy of the commons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It is and always will be the role of Government to influence individual entities actions for the common good.

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There is where I get confused by these positions. The argument is that humans left to their own choices will make choices that are bad for the group as a whole. We therefore need to leave these big decisions to the government to prevent the fallibility of humanity.

The problem I see with this line of thought is that governments are composed of fallible humans. I fail to understand how if an individual is incapable of making good choices for the benefit of the group, how pooling them into a group is going to make their decisions any better.

I see the problem of the commons as more of a problem of what does not work in socialism. In the case of the commons, no individual owned or was responsible for the commons. The system was set up so that it was to each farmers benefit to graze as many cows as possible, to the detriment of the others and ultimately himself.

If the farmers were to have each owned or personally been responsible for their individual portion of the pasture, there would be a huge economic reason not to over graze as this would cause the farmer's economic demise.

I see the value of government and its proper place for protecting the individuals and their rights in a society however I also see that when government is given too much authority, it ultimately will abuse the very individuals that it is supposedly protecting.

What I find concerning with this train of thought is that the fallibility of humans is being substituted for state-ism which ironically is controlled by fallible humans. I fail to understand how you expect to get anything other then more bad decisions on just a grander scale.

Ziggy2 said:

What I find concerning with this train of thought is that the fallibility of humans is being substituted for state-ism which ironically is controlled by fallible humans. I fail to understand how you expect to get anything other then more bad decisions on just a grander scale.

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Yet some how predatory capitalists bent on extracting wealth are better.
They are also fallible and often sociopathic people.

I find it interesting that the rich who made their own money tend to be left of those that inherited.

What I find concerning with this train of thought is that the fallibility of humans is being substituted for state-ism which ironically is controlled by fallible humans. I fail to understand how you expect to get anything other then more bad decisions on just a grander scale.

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Oh come now,
Don't be concerned about such things.

The folks who make up the government are far more versed in the doings of the masses.

They have been educated in the finest entities, with learned folks dispensing wisdom at an alarming rate.

They tell of how we can actually PREDICT the weather, HUNDREDS of years from now. They tell us how we need to sacrifice our children's future earnings on such a prediction. They talk of Utopian cities that shall become the bastion of liberal thought and lifestyle. Were full grown men can enter a ladies bathroom and interact with your daughters, while they do their business. All in the name of political correctness.

Don't be concerned Ziggy.

It's all going to be OK.

smalltime said:

Oh come now,
Don't be concerned about such things.

The folks who make up the government are far more versed in the doings of the masses.

They have been educated in the finest entities, with learned folks dispensing wisdom at an alarming rate.

They tell of how we can actually PREDICT the weather, HUNDREDS of years from now. They tell us how we need to sacrifice our children's future earnings on such a prediction. They talk of Utopian cities that shall become the bastion of liberal thought and lifestyle. Were full grown men can enter a ladies bathroom and interact with your daughters, while they do their business. All in the name of political correctness.

Don't be concerned Ziggy.

It's all going to be OK.

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Of course those with capital give shit one about those without.
Sort of th whole idea behind competition...fuck you.

I mean really, look at the restrictions on lead fuels, food safety, banking regs...all job killers in restraint of trade.

Ah Billy gates such a fucking innovator.
List of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Heavey Metal said:

Ah Billy gates such a fucking innovator.
List of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Funny.
You are ragging on him...at the same time he's saying that we need public sector innovation, and that private sector innovation is inept.
Seem you and Gates are in agreement.

smalltime said:

Oh come now,
Were full grown men can enter a ladies bathroom and interact with your daughters, while they do their business..

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Yeah, Oh come now. We don't need that kind of hate on this board. Those daughters might BE transgendered. They might be in the 42% of transgendered youth who attempt suicide. Or the 20 or so % that are successful at it. Maybe even your daughter or son.

tdmidget said:

Yeah, Oh come now. We don't need that kind of hate on this board. Those daughters might BE transgendered. They might be in the 42% of transgendered youth who attempt suicide. Or the 20 or so % that are successful at it. Maybe even your daughter or son.

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Som people do need to conflate all change.
Truth is the real problem with bathrooms is that people like small conflate shitting with sex and confuse gender fluidity with rape.
rather thAn face the reality of rape they would condemn 10% of the population to abuse.

Consider the rest of the post...
Proud willful ignorance.
Explicit rejection of learned skills...try that as a junior machinist.
Complete assumption that future earnings rely on the past expired technologies.

Yep, classic conservativism.
Sex bad, change bad, new scary, smart bad.


As a super bonus, the complete failure to know the difference between weather and climate, nor to understand that the economy will be unrecognizablle in our grand children's time.

Looks like one of our resident communists is being a shit starter again. No "OT" or anything, I hope it gets locked soon or I will waste a lot of time on it.

moonlight machine said:

Looks like one of our resident communists is being a shit starter again. No "OT" or anything, I hope it gets locked soon or I will waste a lot of time on it.

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Not off topic at all.
The opinions of a modern American entrepreneur regarding what's needed to move forward.

So now we're touting a capitalist who has extracted tens of billions of dollars from society as an oracle and savior. I wonder what his carbon footprint looks like?

The Gates Foundation's Leveraged Philanthropy: Corporate Profit Versus Humanity on Three Fronts - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Above article has Gates in league with Monsanto, GlaxoSmithKline, Coca-Cola, etc. Full of clickable links and other well-researched information. My favorite quote of many from the article, my own emphasis added:

The goal of these policies is often to explicitly support profitability for corporate investors, whose enterprises are seen by the Gates Foundation as advancing human good

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Another good one, and again with that evil capitalist word, 'profit':

Since Gates believes sustainable health systems must be privately profitable...

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I guess the guy can afford to sit around and dream up schemes to save mankind from evil capitalists. If I had a $120 million house, a $40 million plane, and $86 billion in the bank I could too

Envy, isn't that supposed to be a left wing thing.