4 ms·

If you hate to sound like one of those Ron Paul folks, don't say things like "I'd like to see less engagement of the government in everything". That doesn't ma

by jbooth 16y ago

If you hate to sound like one of those Ron Paul folks, don't say things like "I'd like to see less engagement of the government in everything". That doesn't make any sense. You're taking a whole bunch of big complicated problems, shrinking them to a single simplification that you can get your head around, and then prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions. That's never a good recipe. The Federal Government happens to be in a place where they can expend small money for big national gains in a number of places -- energy research in particular is one of those. Federally funded energy research just plain makes sense, especially when you compare it to all of the indirectly-federally-funded oil exploration that happens on a dollar for dollar basis. EDIT: For "what in what", I meant "people" in "solving the problems we have in this country".

yummyfajitas 16y ago
One problem people have in this country: I'm hungry but too busy at work to cook. Some frenchies, mexicans and indians solved that for me [1]. Another problem: my stuff is in house A, but I want it in house B. Some Ukrainians solved that problem for me. I'm highly engaged in solving the problem of "you want to sell your stocks, but no one wants to buy them right now." While there are an unusually large number of people not doing this right now, it's mainly due to assorted frictions. Some of them don't know what problems need to be solved, or are not very good at solving the problems that currently need to be solved, or just live too far away to help. That's a problem, but it's really not clear how this site helps with it. It seems like a site such as monster.com would be more useful. [1] Temporarily, at least. My local city council is trying to shut them down.
- jbooth 16y ago
  Yeah, so nobody's advocating that the government takes over commodity manufacturing, cooking, or for that matter farming. Meanwhile. Energy? And if you claim that the private sector's currently handling that without government help, I'm going to point and laugh for any definition of "handling", "that" and "government help".
  - yummyfajitas 16y ago
    I'm kind of confused. I simply pointed out that most people are already highly engaged in solving problems we have in this country, in response to your suggestion that engagement needs to be increased. So let me be more precise in my question. To what level should we increase our engagement in solving the problems of the country? Should we all engage ourselves 12 hours a day instead of 10, or give up weekends? Or should we simply devote ourselves to poster contests rather than to (for example) making pizza for others to consume?
    - jbooth 16y ago
      You don't have to step up your engagement at all. But if people out there are interested in a particular topic, even if it's a small-fry topic, a website to encourage them to propose ideas and work together is an enabler -- it's asymmetric in that it can deliver value far in excess of the costs of making a relatively simple website. So it seems pretty worthwhile, especially considering the costs. This is the kind of thing that those of us who voted Obama were looking for.

by jbooth 16y ago

yummyfajitas 16y ago

One problem people have in this country: I'm hungry but too busy at work to cook. Some frenchies, mexicans and indians solved that for me [1]. Another problem: my stuff is in house A, but I want it in house B. Some Ukrainians solved that problem for me. I'm highly engaged in solving the problem of "you want to sell your stocks, but no one wants to buy them right now." While there are an unusually large number of people not doing this right now, it's mainly due to assorted frictions. Some of them don't know what problems need to be solved, or are not very good at solving the problems that currently need to be solved, or just live too far away to help. That's a problem, but it's really not clear how this site helps with it. It seems like a site such as monster.com would be more useful. [1] Temporarily, at least. My local city council is trying to shut them down.

jbooth 16y ago
Yeah, so nobody's advocating that the government takes over commodity manufacturing, cooking, or for that matter farming. Meanwhile. Energy? And if you claim that the private sector's currently handling that without government help, I'm going to point and laugh for any definition of "handling", "that" and "government help".
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  I'm kind of confused. I simply pointed out that most people are already highly engaged in solving problems we have in this country, in response to your suggestion that engagement needs to be increased. So let me be more precise in my question. To what level should we increase our engagement in solving the problems of the country? Should we all engage ourselves 12 hours a day instead of 10, or give up weekends? Or should we simply devote ourselves to poster contests rather than to (for example) making pizza for others to consume?
  - jbooth 16y ago
    You don't have to step up your engagement at all. But if people out there are interested in a particular topic, even if it's a small-fry topic, a website to encourage them to propose ideas and work together is an enabler -- it's asymmetric in that it can deliver value far in excess of the costs of making a relatively simple website. So it seems pretty worthwhile, especially considering the costs. This is the kind of thing that those of us who voted Obama were looking for.