[talaniman]

Which government do you refer to Tom? The one the rich guy buy or the one that people elect under the constitution? Let's make it easy. Which one do we have NOW?

[tomder55]

I did not see this the 1st time I looked at the link. This is from the discredited Paul Ehrlich .When was he right in his predictions ?
Back in 1968 he said “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s hundreds of millions of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked upon now. At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate,”
https://books.google.com/books?id=od...ed=0CDsQ6AEwBQ

The world population has more than doubled in the time since , but the amount of food per head has gone up by more than 25 per cent.

He also said “By the year 2000 the United Kingdom will be simply a small group of impoverished islands, inhabited by some 70 million hungry people … If I were a gambler, I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000.”

Now England is indeed a basket case . But again he was way off . He also said

I ask him when did extinctions take place ? During periods of warming like when the Vikings were planting vinyards in Nova Scotia ? ;or when the Brits were grilling oxen on the frozen Thames ?

[tomder55]

Which government do you refer to Tom? The one the rich guy buy or the one that people elect under the constitution? Let's make it easy. Which one do we have NOW?

so you don't like private investment because you don't like the profit motive ;and you don't like public investment because you don't trust the government .
How would you fund your altruistic R & D ?

[paraclete]

I think what is objected to is super profits and gouging by averious CEO who hold no interest but their own

[tomder55]

The oil companies don't come close to windfall profits.....only 8-9 % slightly larger than what Starbucks ;slightly lower than food mfg. and they make and much lower margins than other industries like software companies..... Google reported a net profit margin of 25% . ) . The total dollar figures appear large because they are big companies. So you can demagogue and quote the dollar value of their profits without looking into the numbers . Apple had larger profits than Exxon-Mobile($18 bil compared to 15.9 bil) and people line up to buy their products . No one complains .

[paraclete]

Interesting that the companies you cite as having good margins are seriel tax avoiders using double dutch tactics, but I cry no tears for oil companies, they gouge prices at any opportunity. I don't need to look at the numbers having many years experience in the accounting of large corporations. As far a I am concerned anything above a net 5% of sales is too high

[tomder55]

Interesting that the companies you cite as having good margins are seriel tax avoiders using double dutch tactics, but I cry no tears for oil companies, they gouge prices at any opportunity. I don't need to look at the numbers having many years experience in the accounting of large corporations. As far a I am concerned anything above a net 5% of sales is too high

and I would not bother opening a business for such low margins.

[paraclete]

Tom it isn't about margin it is about volume, any telco will tell you that. The margin for selling fuel retail is pitifully low, far below the benchmark I suggest but those business exist and it is the oil companies who gouge the profit. Business is not about how many quick millionaires it makes, this is lost on capophiles like you. Business is about achieving a return on investment which provides a reasonable safe return. I can say I want a 15% return on capital over the life of the asset and that would be a reasonable return, it has no reference to the quantum of sales other than a certain turnover must be available to achieve the return

[tomder55]

so let me get this straight.... you would regulate how large an international company is permitted to grow ? You really are a statist micromanager . So while the nanny/welfare state approaches insolvency and businesses sag around the world ;your answer is to restrict business and to commandeer other people's money to feed the masses growing sense of entitlement .

[paraclete]

Yes Tom I certainly would regulate how large and wide spread your mega companies can grow, any mega corporation in fact. They are a blight on the landscape, quite literally. Monsanto for example, the greatest polluter on the planet and I haven't even started on the oil companies. You keep wanting to run the nanny state propaganda but in reality these corporations are no respecter of laws, or national boundries. No, we should keep all these companies within their own national boundries, it's OK, I don't mind keeping the Murdochs of this world at home. There are ways they can make a profit, exploit their patients, invest. We don't need their presence and Tom I already said that the growing masses need to be kerbed, convinced that population growth needs to be restricted, because the public purse doesn't grow at the same rate. Look at your own national debt your capitalist model has failed to provide. Right now we are investigating 30 of your largest corporations for tax fraud here.

The super profits tax wasn't a bad idea it just didn't go far enough, we have a few banks here who should be put through the wringer. Once your auto makers got off the public teat they left so don't do us any favours

[tomder55]

Look at your own national debt your capitalist model has failed to provide

I already addressed the cause of that .

your answer is to restrict business and to commandeer other people's money to feed the masses growing sense of entitlement .

[paraclete]

Keep running your strawmen arguments they have no feet

Big business needs to be regulated because it has shown it is incapable of regulating itsself. The idea of being a good corporate citizens is to throw money at some cause while interferring in the political process through lobbying. The idea of freedom in your country has been to carry the idea of personal freedoms to corporations, this is a nonsense.

You blame your national debt on the excesses of one political party while forgetting the excesses of the other, but how much of your debt has been accumulated in payoff for the political support of corporations. Your thinking is too corrupted to even contemplate the twists and turns as you wriggle to get out from under the facts

[speechlesstx]

Asteroids? Global warming? No, we're headed for another little ice age.

[paraclete]

Possibly speech or perhaps even a big ice age pity you have to be a subscriber to find out what Murdoch thinks

[excon]

Hello Science Deniers:

If the laws of physics allow matter to fuse, then MAN can make matter fuse.. If we "dabble", tom is right.. It'll take a generation.. But, if we INVEST, we can do it in 10 years..

excon

[paraclete]

You think this is another "fly me to the moon moment" ex when a nation can be galvanised to focus on solving a problem few scientists are working on. Unfortunately what can be done in miniture cannot be scaled up with the technology we possess. For fusion to be useful the reaction must be contained, we would be as well off if we tapped the geothermal resources of the Earth