unclej0

Toyota vs. Ford: A Modern Manufacturing Parable

My dear d6j8, We are what we are: biological machines who have evolved to develop language, some technology, and a very, very modest ability to reason.

Given these severe limitations and a genetic predisposition to be aggressive and hostile, we need some cultural rules to make a marginally decent society viable. We may not be there yet, but let's try.

There is not time to further evolve biologically to eliminate self righteousness and lame brains. Cultures can evolve much more rapidly.

Automakers: A Pitiful Trio

The government is what we make it. Those who contrived to make GW Bush president have much to answer for.

Modern economics is complicated stuff. Government controlled by ignorant and highly opinionated ideologues of any stripe is a disaster waiting to happen.

Toyota vs. Ford: A Modern Manufacturing Parable

While the Ford management in the story is ridiculously irrational American corporate management is sometimes not easy to rationalize. For example, can someone explain why the dividend paid by some companies exceeds the earnings per share? To me, that looks like liquidation of a profitable enterprise.

Automakers: A Pitiful Trio

This article is bull, piled high and deep, as were Ayn Rand's novels glorifying capitalists as supermen.

The common good of the nation is properly the business of government, which should permit private enterprise to thrive when it is properly conducted, but to intervene when it threatens the economic well-being of the nation.

The housing bubble, the excessive risks undertaken in the financial sector, and the failure of the American automobile manufacturers to lead in the development of new technologies (oh, how they and their lobbyists resisted!) all cried out for government intervention years ago.

We are now reaping the bitter harvest sown for us by the ideological deregulators. Ideologies are a smokescreen to subvert rationality and pragmatism. Fortunately, Barack Obama has recognized that truth.

Why Bailouts Are Not the Answer

Doesn't increased savings require discretionary income?

The government can either pay for unemployment or it can build infrastructure and create jobs. I'd rather have the infrastructure.

We do need intelligent government intervention. Paulson, however, is the poster boy for bailing out deadbeats. The sheriff is in cahoots with the outlaws. That seems to be the rule in the Bush administration.