Weather Channel Founder says"Global Warming is Biggest Scam in History

[owsley]

I don't know how to reply to the assertion that in a society without government scam artists will be able to always make money ripping people off except by saying "Humans are smart enough and innovative enough to come up with a voluntary solution."

[tomdemaine]

[ QUOTE ]
tom,

Obvious problem is that:

1) Crossing point can be 15-20 years down the line or otherwise allow you to make a lot of money so that it doesn't matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be but it usually isn't and the market is about prevention not cure. A few oddball cases can't be the justification for a trillion dollar military ande the theft of 50% of everyones income surely?

[ QUOTE ]

2) Can't automatically make money the honest way, "cutting corners" will ALWAYS save money in the short run.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't have any skills to make any money the honest way you'll never be in a position to make a "cut corners" decision. In general, in a free market people who are better at long term decision making will have more power.

[xorbie]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know how to reply to the assertion that in a society without government scam artists will be able to always make money ripping people off except by saying "Humans are smart enough and innovative enough to come up with a voluntary solution."

[/ QUOTE ]

No [censored]. And the voluntary solution is going to be an institution that has very government like function.

Also I just realized we are way the [censored] off topic.

[xorbie]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
tom,

Obvious problem is that:

1) Crossing point can be 15-20 years down the line or otherwise allow you to make a lot of money so that it doesn't matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be but it usually isn't and the market is about prevention not cure. A few oddball cases can't be the justification for a trillion dollar military ande the theft of 50% of everyones income surely?

[ QUOTE ]

2) Can't automatically make money the honest way, "cutting corners" will ALWAYS save money in the short run.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't have any skills to make any money the honest way you'll never be in a position to make a "cut corners" decision. In general, in a free market people who are better at long term decision making will have more power.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know why I bother. This is just ridiculous.

[Mark1808]

[ QUOTE ]
tom,

Obvious problem is that:

1) Crossing point can be 15-20 years down the line or otherwise allow you to make a lot of money so that it doesn't matter.

2) Can't automatically make money the honest way, "cutting corners" will ALWAYS save money in the short run.

[/ QUOTE ]

Saving money does not equal more profits if your product quality and the price it can command declines.

The less our laws are enforced the more profitable being criminal becomes. Government should always try to make the price and likelihood of being caught high.

[tomdemaine]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
tom,

Obvious problem is that:

1) Crossing point can be 15-20 years down the line or otherwise allow you to make a lot of money so that it doesn't matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be but it usually isn't and the market is about prevention not cure. A few oddball cases can't be the justification for a trillion dollar military ande the theft of 50% of everyones income surely?

[ QUOTE ]

2) Can't automatically make money the honest way, "cutting corners" will ALWAYS save money in the short run.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't have any skills to make any money the honest way you'll never be in a position to make a "cut corners" decision. In general, in a free market people who are better at long term decision making will have more power.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know why I bother. This is just ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure why you get into these discussions when inevitably at some point you throw your hands up and in exasperation and say that you don't know why you bother anymore without explaining the clearly incredibly elemental thing that we're all missing.

[Mark1808]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
tom,

Obvious problem is that:

1) Crossing point can be 15-20 years down the line or otherwise allow you to make a lot of money so that it doesn't matter.

[/ QUOTE ]

It can be but it usually isn't and the market is about prevention not cure. A few oddball cases can't be the justification for a trillion dollar military ande the theft of 50% of everyones income surely?

[ QUOTE ]

2) Can't automatically make money the honest way, "cutting corners" will ALWAYS save money in the short run.

[/ QUOTE ]

If you don't have any skills to make any money the honest way you'll never be in a position to make a "cut corners" decision. In general, in a free market people who are better at long term decision making will have more power.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't know why I bother. This is just ridiculous.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure why you get into these discussions when inevitably at some point you throw your hands up and in exasperation and say that you don't know why you bother anymore without explaining the clearly incredibly elemental thing that we're all missing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Exactly. If something is ridiculous tell us why it is ridiculous. How ridiculous can it be if you can't easily explain it?

[xorbie]

I already explained it, that's the point. It's like in every damn thread all you do is bitch about the government, and I'm trying to discuss some specific issue and all you have is "blah blah theft blah blah trillion military Iraq".

If you have no oversight/regulatory institution, you are going to have people making money off of scams/lies/deceiving customers. This isn't some sort of theoretical discussion, this is just plain, obvious fact. It's not "-EV", it's not "a few oddballs". You will have people selling [censored] medicines, building shoddy houses, etc

Why? Because there's a buck to be made. You argue that somehow this is -EV in the "long run" but the run doesn't have to be long when I can retire off a few years of ripping people off, or just move to a new town and start over there.

Your second point isn't even meaningful. Making "long term decisions" is always helpful, but it's not like "cutting corners" is somehow not a "long term decision" if your business otherwise isn't competitive, or if you are old and about to retire, or if one of many other factors is in play.

[Mark1808]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I never said company's can't or don't rip people off, I am saying ones that do will not prosper. I asked you to give me an example and you can't. Even if you think people are getting ripped off they may feel that the product or service to them is worth the price.

[/ QUOTE ]

uh, insurance industry is a lot of scam. I mean, katrina, half the people got denied because it got classified as flood for which they didn't have coverage, and half got denied cause it got classed as thunderstorm for which they didn't have coverage.

ok I made up some specifics but the fact is the insurance companies screwed everyhone in katrina and insurance in general is a scam and somtimes it is government forced (auto), sometimes private market forced (mortgage), and sometimes people just want to get screwed over, and then sometimes it works out for people cause you can't screw everyone 100% of the time cause then the dumbos catch on.

[/ QUOTE ]

Insurance companies aren't the judge and jury just ask John Edwards!! People have a contract with their insurance companies, if they feel they have been defrauded it should not be much of a problem to find an attorney to pursue their case.

[Mark1808]

Back on topic. If solar can be made price competitive private industry will find a way and profit greatly if successful. If Government takes money by force from successful entrepreneurs to invest in areas it deems fit you will have a more inefficient system. You are taking money from those with a track record of success and vested interest and giving it to Government which has a poor track record of success (education, health care, poverty, crime, etc.) and no vested interest.

If this were not true then why not just give all resources to Government control? Why wouldn’t Government be better to finding solutions to all problems in society (better food production, more productive machines, better medicine, etc.)? For those who think solar needs government spending why restrict government solutions to this one area?