Comments on: “Green” Brought to you by GE http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/ Constructive Political Dialogue's New Home Fri, 05 Dec 2008 09:47:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Frank Staheli http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-358 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 20:10:59 +0000 http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-358 Karl Marx made some very accurate observations about Capitalists. When it suits their short-sighted purposes, they can be very dominating, vindictive, and generally destructive of an economy. Ken makes a great example of freon. My pharmaceutical vendor made a slight change to one of my prescriptions, so it is no longer part of my formulary, so it now costs an arm and a leg more than it used to. These are examples of capitalism run amok. Yes, GE lobbies because there's great money to be made in defense, but they also lobby because there's great money to be made in "green". The problem with Marx is that his "solutions" to the problems he saw were all wrong. They involved elite governmental decision makers determining what should be safe, what should be produced, and what should be allowed or prohibited. Sadly, we are much closer to Marx's ideology today when it comes to defense, energy, AND global warming. The GE's, the Lockheeds, and the Pfizers have become part of the elite that Marx (and Plato) envisioned. P.S. I wasn't able to attend the Sutherland Earth Week events (so I don't know...), but I do tend to agree with Jason--if advocates from the various perspectives are not being invited, they should be. Karl Marx made some very accurate observations about Capitalists. When it suits their short-sighted purposes, they can be very dominating, vindictive, and generally destructive of an economy. Ken makes a great example of freon. My pharmaceutical vendor made a slight change to one of my prescriptions, so it is no longer part of my formulary, so it now costs an arm and a leg more than it used to. These are examples of capitalism run amok.

Yes, GE lobbies because there’s great money to be made in defense, but they also lobby because there’s great money to be made in “green”.

The problem with Marx is that his “solutions” to the problems he saw were all wrong. They involved elite governmental decision makers determining what should be safe, what should be produced, and what should be allowed or prohibited. Sadly, we are much closer to Marx’s ideology today when it comes to defense, energy, AND global warming. The GE’s, the Lockheeds, and the Pfizers have become part of the elite that Marx (and Plato) envisioned.

P.S. I wasn’t able to attend the Sutherland Earth Week events (so I don’t know…), but I do tend to agree with Jason–if advocates from the various perspectives are not being invited, they should be.

]]> by: Ken http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-352 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:52:07 +0000 http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-352 Freon got so cheap that there wasn't much money in it anymore so the company that made it created something far less efficient but more expensive. To make people pay more for a new lower quality product they floated the idea that freon contributed to global warming and sent their minions along with environmentalists to lobby congress to ban it. Now we no longer have freon and are left with a product that costs more, is very corrosive and may even be worse on the environment than freon, not to mention the fact that NASA uses the new stuff to make the infamous foam that resulted in the deaths of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia. When they used freon there was never any issue with the foam. Incandescent light bulbs are so cheap that GE makes very little profit from them. So following the lead of freon they came up with a more expensive alternative and they lobbied congress along with environmentalists to ban incandescent light bulbs in favor of more expensive ones that do not last as long as advertised and when broken produce a toxic cloud of mercury. Corporations have jumped on the global warming bandwagon because they see lots of money in it. They can use the hysteria caused by it to get even more money out of us and they can use environmentalists as stooges to do their bidding. Isn't that convenient? Freon got so cheap that there wasn’t much money in it anymore so the company that made it created something far less efficient but more expensive. To make people pay more for a new lower quality product they floated the idea that freon contributed to global warming and sent their minions along with environmentalists to lobby congress to ban it. Now we no longer have freon and are left with a product that costs more, is very corrosive and may even be worse on the environment than freon, not to mention the fact that NASA uses the new stuff to make the infamous foam that resulted in the deaths of the astronauts aboard the space shuttle Columbia. When they used freon there was never any issue with the foam.

Incandescent light bulbs are so cheap that GE makes very little profit from them. So following the lead of freon they came up with a more expensive alternative and they lobbied congress along with environmentalists to ban incandescent light bulbs in favor of more expensive ones that do not last as long as advertised and when broken produce a toxic cloud of mercury.

Corporations have jumped on the global warming bandwagon because they see lots of money in it. They can use the hysteria caused by it to get even more money out of us and they can use environmentalists as stooges to do their bidding. Isn’t that convenient?

]]> by: Davis Didjeridu http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-347 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 19:43:52 +0000 http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-347 I think it is more likely that GE spends a lot of lobbying cash so it can keep up it's massive defense department contracts instead of any green agenda. I think it is more likely that GE spends a lot of lobbying cash so it can keep up it’s massive defense department contracts instead of any green agenda.

]]> by: Jesse Harris http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-344 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:07:58 +0000 http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-344 FDR was far too prescient when he claimed that nothing in politics happens by accident. FDR was far too prescient when he claimed that nothing in politics happens by accident.

]]> by: jasonthe http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-343 Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:00:33 +0000 http://politicalcivility.com/blog8/2008/04/28/green-brought-to-you-by-ge/#comment-343 With your newfound distaste for lobbying efforts pushing specific agendas irregardless of sound science (something I applaud), I assume we can expect a much more representative field of speakers at next year's "Earth" Week then? With your newfound distaste for lobbying efforts pushing specific agendas irregardless of sound science (something I applaud), I assume we can expect a much more representative field of speakers at next year’s “Earth” Week then?

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