Tweet
Farm subsidies 
-
-
Well, this is disappointing subject material, after such a promising thread title. Next time you'd better have news about some pimp on the corner handing out free booze. Maybe gas prices wouldn't be so bad if half of us were too drunk to drive anyway.Comment
-
Yeah, burn all drug companies to the ground! But wait until after 9, that's when I leaveOriginally posted by Oerdin
The market works great for some things and just doesn't work for other things. The classic example which Bill Gates used when explaining some of his foundation's work was that Big Pharma would spend tens of billions on drugs which help old white guys get hard ons (because those guys have money to burn) but no one was spending money on vaccines for most tropical deseases which kill millions each year (because those people didn't have money to burn). Thatt is a classic case of the needs of human society not being filled by the market.
It seems to me if politicians want to hurry up the process of implimenting oil alternatives (because they believe weening ourselves off of foreign oil is in the nation's interests) then those politicians are going to have to cough up most of the start up cash. That's how you induce the prrivate companies to do what you want.
Speaking of Erith:
"It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda SmithComment
-
Corn-based ethanol
Farm subsidies
More efficient ethanol
But yeah, it seems funding of this sort of research in this country has more to do with pandering to the farmers than say ending our dependence on foreign oil or saving the environment. This makes me sad.Last edited by Victor Galis; June 30, 2006, 03:01."The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
-Joan RobinsonComment
-
Without government subsidies and mandates, I highly doubt they'd be getting anything close to those returns.Originally posted by DanS
If companies are chasing 35% returns, then sufficient R&D should be become available.Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...Comment
-
I've always considered a form of fuel that is integrated into the carbon cycle to be by far the most feasible means of weening humans of fossil fuels. This is just a convoluted source of solar power after all
Speaking of Erith:
"It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda SmithComment
-
My only concern with bio-feuls is what that may do to the soil, since those remains won't be plowed back in.Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...Comment
-
Very valid concern...I suppose they will just have to heap on the fertiliser
Speaking of Erith:
"It's not twinned with anywhere, but it does have a suicide pact with Dagenham" - Linda SmithComment
-
Which comes from . . . oil!Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree...Comment
-
Yeah... the sad truth about corn-based ethanol is that in producing it we destroy an environmental or national security benefit we gain over just burning the oil in the cars.
I mean... they use oil as fertilizer for the corn
"The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
-Joan RobinsonComment
-
Dan - it's simple. By spending money on ethanol research, the government can claim to be pro-environment
<Reverend> IRC is just multiplayer notepad.
I like your SNOOPY POSTER! - While you Wait quote.Comment
-
What, are our chickens not defecating enough to keep up with demand anymore? Or is corn too good for chicken-crap?Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Which comes from . . . oil!Comment
-
Over here, natural fertilizer is mostly made of pig-crap.
However, the smell is vile, and it pollutes the water."I have been reading up on the universe and have come to the conclusion that the universe is a good thing." -- Dissident
"I never had the need to have a boner." -- Dissident
"I have never cut off my penis when I was upset over a girl." -- DisComment
-
Yep, corn based ethanol subsidies exist only because Iowa is one of two states that help to determine who Presidential nominees are. It's an extremely inefficienty source of energy.
And farms subsidies in general are evil."Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before. He is full of murderous resentment of people who are ignorant without having come by their ignorance the hard way. "
-BokononComment
-
Farmers if not for the fact that they feed us all...
"The purpose of studying economics is not to acquire a set of ready-made answers to economic questions, but to learn how to avoid being deceived by economists."
-Joan RobinsonComment
Comment