From ABC news, an article about how the CEOs of the Auto companies are spending a ton of cash flying private jets to Washington (and elsewhere) so they can beg for taxpayer money bailouts.
This is just one piece of a very large puzzley snowball that has been building up recently to cause the current economic decline. There is a tremendous gap between these CEOs and other wealthy folks and those “Average Joes” out there. And average Joe is tired of propping up these rich folk’s expensive habits.
This is the same sort of argument people make for pirating movies and music. “I’m not paying inflated prices to feed some zillionair rock star/actor”. whether it’s a conscious decision or not, people don’t like to feel walked on. They see these people complaining about a lack of money when those same people make more in a day than a regular person makes in a year.
The article says these plane trips cost 20,000 dollars. That’s not quite what I make in an entire year of work and I’m raising a family of 5. There are people who argue that this blatant waste of money is worthwhile?
I’ve seen arguments of security concerns. Guess what. I couldn’t tell you the name of Ford’s owner much less spot him in a crowd. OK, maybe there is some psycho out there bent on killing this guy and he’s probably researched a bit as to what he looks like. Even with say, seven, aides and security personnel in tow at $900 a person for first class, that’s still only $6700 for a trip. Hell throw the aides into coach and drop a couple of thousand more off.
It’s not like security on planes isn’t through the roof since 9.11 happened.
Anyway, he point is, it’s pretty rediculous. Especially when you consider CEOs allover are doing this sort of thing.
Tags: ABC, CEO, Chrysler, CM, economy, Ford, investment, news, wasteful
There is a lot of buzz going around Son-To-Be-President Obama. Specifically buzz about his understanding and desire to push Technology more with the government. for example, he wants to create a Chief Technology Officer position.
He also has made use of a variety of Social Networking tools and is proceeding with continuing this trend. He’s also a walking spokes model for Blackberry, often being seen using his while out in public. It’s been a long time coming that we get someone in charge who has some idea about how all of this new technology works.
But will the government let him continue to use technology to better himself. There an article going around suggesting that President Barack Obama won’t be allowed to use email much less his Blackberry. Something to do with everything the President does being required to be publicly available. Do they realize how easy it would be to set up that email to all dump into it’s own server as well as his Blackberry and any number of other sources? You set up a box with Outlook running somewhere in the white house basement and set it to leave messages on the server so other devices can still get them. Even if he deletes it the other box will still receive it. Ok, yeah, with security it’s a little more complicated than that but that’s the general gist.
I personally think it’s a good thing. People look to the President for inspiration. If our President knows how to use a Blackberry and email effectively, it might inspire more people to get better aquatinted with technology. As someone who’s job includes providing Tech Support to an office full of people, I can tell you, many people have no clue. I’ve met many sales people who surprise me with their ability to even turn their computers on. These are people who are able to compose word documents and emails only through habit, not out of understanding of what is happening.
Now admittedly, there are some people who just don’t get it and may not be able to get it. For example, as much as I try, I can’t get my wife to stop calling the monitor the "computer" and the PC (case) the "Modem". She’s smart and I’ve taught her a lot about how to use the computer. She has even figured out a lot of things on her own that i wouldn’t have expected, but some people are just not willing to put in that extra step for whatever reason.
But perhaps more understanding and use of these technologies by our government will help. More email is even good for the environment. Less paper floating around after all. I’ve already been pushing documents to PDFs for archival instead of papers in a file cabinet. It’s not hard to do. You could even hire a bunch of people to do the digital archiving. It’s win for the economy too!
I do understand concerns with security though. You also have to be able to keep people from stealing this data with pen drives or electronic transfers. Unlike paper copies digital data can always be copied without leaving any trace that it was ever stolen. Despite what DRM and anti piracy people tell you, all data on a PC is still just ones and zeros and can be replicated. Encryption can also always be broken in time (sometimes that time is ‘a million years’ but still, breakable).
But, like Obama’s campaign slogan, Change is needed. We can’t hold back progress forever with stubbornness about keeping with what is safe and known. Look where it’s getting us. The world hates the USA and our failing economy is pulling the world down (topic for a whole separate post). The most intriguing thing I’ve heard come out of the recent election was that people around the world cheered and congratulated the United States for choosing Obama over McCain. That certainly makes me feel good about the future of our country and global politics in general.
This story is extremely interesting. I’m surprised I’m not seeing it around more.
Basically it’s a much quicker and cheaper way to make solar cells. Why not encourage solar power use after all, it’s effectively free. Oh right, it can’t be monetized like oil or propane or whatever. Paying 5 dollars for a gallon of gasoline is a much better solution to power needs.
I used to work with the Solar Race Car team at the college I went to before SIU. Sure it’s slow on the pick up but it gets the job done. Besides, electric powered vehicles are getting better and better.
Yeah, I suppose I am coming off a little obsessed with solar and cars. This sort of thing can of course also be used for homes and businesses a well.
Tags: electricity, energy, news, power, solar
I’ve set up a blog for tracking my Transformers Collection. So far it’s only got a few entries but it’ll grow over time as I get around to photographing this stuff.
This is a slightly popular thing to do online and as far as Transformers fans are concerned, the idea is pretty much ripped off from Nala over at Plastic Crack. I have no intention of ever expanding that blog to anything else though. I have Lameazoid for reviews and general malarky…
Tags: Blogs, Links, toys, Transformers
Well, I’m convinced. I’ll do anything a cute chick on TV tells me to do.
Tags: chicks, commercial, election, fucking, McCain, politics
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