Legit Reviews

I can't believe how ignorant the US government is. If you are from another country you are saying no S$%T. Fact is we are in a very harsh time with people and unemployment right now. Now me, I can see some major flaws on why it's like this.
Start off with IDENTIFY. So we shall identify the problem with jobs. I would start by saying, who is it that creates the demand for jobs while not needing a job? Wouldn't that be a good start? So with a deeper look we unveil the senior citizens. They go out to eat, shop at stores, buy cars, need lawn care, prescriptions, doctor visits etc.. Now you can see how they create jobs, so what seems like the logical thing to do here? Well, how about we ask the men with an IQ lower than the calories of a pickle.. What would they say? TAKE AWAY SOCIAL SECURITY! umm... wait. So if we take it away won't they not be able to go out and create the jobs? Well they think it's a great idea.

Now let's look at the next idea. Let's copy other countries that have national health care. Some how they think this can help our economy. So once again let's create jobs. By.... taking away all the people in the insurance field's jobs away. Great idea. That would REALLY boost our economy.

How about a visual comparison of what would be another way to take our tax dollars and make sure we never see them again. I won't even get started on 9-11. It was a personal vendetta. We knew there was no nukes. We know they posed no threat. But, with that aside. Let's take a look how countries lose money.
Just say for example our currency is . We have 10 of them . Now
if we have 10 and goto a country like say Japan one of our military bases. Our military spends our tax money where? Let's pretend that they spend Now how much does america have? . So we just took our countries wealth and put it where? Why do we have so many bases in the world. Yet not so many here? I'm guessing it's because of the spreading money into other economies.

Yeah the English Government isn't exactly being so smart with finances either, the bottom line is what they are doing is collapsing the £ and my generation is going to have a complete shedload of national debt to try and pay off.

Dan

Now let's look at the next idea. Let's copy other countries that have national health care. Some how they think this can help our economy. So once again let's create jobs. By.... taking away all the people in the insurance field's jobs away. Great idea. That would REALLY boost our economy.

Not true it would create jobs, by giving health care to more people, thus needing more doctors and more nurses. It would help create job, maybe not a lot, but some.

I don't think the doctor staff vs staff of the insurance would be close. Think about it this way too. A Dr. isn't typically the one hurting for work, now the people who get the jobs that would be lost. Well, it's more unskilled than skilled. The medical field is already short staffed here too.

Why don't people just live with in their means and buy American? You then don't have a HUGE debt. And you create jobs here in the good old USA.

Then work alternative fuels and increase the efficiency of everything from transportation to your refrigerator. Create the energy here instead of sending all our money to the middle east.

The reality is that everyone wants to live like a rock star and WAY beyond their means. Even I'm guilty of that to some degree. Any fix that is made has to address those very basic issues.

DX wrote:Why don't people just live with in their means and buy American? You then don't have a HUGE debt. And you create jobs here in the good old USA.

Then work alternative fuels and increase the efficiency of everything from transportation to your refrigerator. Create the energy here instead of sending all our money to the middle east.

The reality is that everyone wants to live like a rock star and WAY beyond their means. Even I'm guilty of that to some degree. Any fix that is made has to address those very basic issues.

You have no idea how many ideas and debates I've had on this. I've even thought of a way for the "bailout" to work. instead of sending it out to the big guns. Send it out to the Citizens and make it where we can only buy things made in america with the money. It's unpractical, at the same time has a foundation. We have the world's largest oil reserves here. But, why is it we want to control the middle east? To create a monopoly. The gas shortage is a scam we are no where near out of it. I do think we need alternate energy just to create competition and get rid of the addiction to oil. At the same time the more money we keep here the more we make. The more people we can get to America (tourists) the more we make. At the same time it's hard to buy from America. The reason why is CEOs make so much money and jack the prices of everything up. I'm the last person to say not to live like a rock star yet I do buy almost everything from America even though my income although decent is not enough to help out.

As for the debate earlier about the health care taking away jobs. I thought about it deeper while I was doing some work. It would actually not be too bad for the future jobs. Think of the school teachers, professors that would be employed due to the new era of doctors. At the same time it could fail because of the demand of doctors before the graduates graduate. Either way Doctors won't be out of work regardless.

We will never have enough doctors. The level of dedication, education, skill and intelligence needed are simply rare qualities found in a very small percentage of people.

We Just need to get rid of all of the free trade agreements and tax the hell out of imports. People would start buying American.

XstollieX wrote:We Just need to get rid of all of the free trade agreements and tax the hell out of imports. People would start buying American.

And then when the dollar dies abroad from lack of trade, what then? When the export business here nosedives, and foreign investors sell their shares in American companies because of tariffs, how will we stay competitive in the global market?

Because what we are doing now is working well in the global market?

DX wrote:Why don't people just live with in their means and buy American? You then don't have a HUGE debt. And you create jobs here in the good old USA.

Then work alternative fuels and increase the efficiency of everything from transportation to your refrigerator. Create the energy here instead of sending all our money to the middle east.

The reality is that everyone wants to live like a rock star and WAY beyond their means. Even I'm guilty of that to some degree. Any fix that is made has to address those very basic issues.

You're on the right track to a point here DX. I'll try to address the major issues as best I can.

National Healthcare Vs. Private Healthcare

National Healthcare is a great idea. On paper. In practice it's a farce that borders on socializm. You need look no further than Dan's home country the UK to see that. Or France for that matter. Many people in France also carry private health insurance on top of thier national health care because there are many proceedures that the national healthcare system deems "not important" enough to justify the costs like cosmetic surgeries to repair scars from accidents.

Couple that with the fact that in a national healthcare system you have no alternatives. If you need an operation you have to go to the doctor they say at the hospital they choose. It's not like America's free market system where you can choose who your primary care physician is. Getting second opinions in a national healthcare system is extremely difficult as typically the doctor who would give you one already has his own patient list to deal with as assigned by the state and has no vested interest (i.e. revenue) in helping you. Also, consider the last time you had your license plates renewed or had a tax problem. Was it a particularly expediant or pleasent experience? I should think not. So why then can we assume that the government would be any better at fixing your broken leg?

The problems with the American healthcare system are not ones of privatization but that of frivilous lawsuits. Malpractice insurance is the number one expense of any medical practice in the United States. If you're a prenatal care giver or an obstitrician that insurance can come to half or better of your practices operating costs due to lawsuits brought by parents of children with birth defects, regardless if those defects were legitimatly caused by malpractice. We need massive Tort reform. We need to adopt a national Tort plan similar to that of Australia. They have, for lack of a better term, a price book that states how much each injury from malpractice to workmans comp costs. This "book" is annually reviewed and updated by both lawyers and physicians to determin an equatable sum. No more trials for "pain and suffering". You loose an arm, it pays X ammount of dollars. Your child has a birth defect from malpractice it pays Y. This allows insurance companies to know exactly how much they would have to pay in advance and thus lowers overall insurance prices as they no longer have to keep "expert witnesses", i.e. other physicians, on retainer in case of trial.


The Failing Economy

America's economy hasn't been based on production of goods and services in quite some time. Aside from agribusiness (food), domestic car production, aircraft production, and weapons manufacture we don't really build anything. No TV's, no stereo's, no washing machines, no toasters, and most assuredly no clothing. All of that is done in foreighn markets where labor is cheaper. Taxing and terrifs will not correct this trend as it's a natural byproduct of becoming a service based economy.

The chief export of America in the last 30 years has been intellectual property, particularly in the fields of computers and electronics. We provide the know how, they provide the labor. The problem is we've been undergoing an intellectual brain drain in this country for the last 15 years. Our national education system is in chrisis. All our "feel good" pop-psychology bull**** of unwarrented promotion through school so we don't damage little Tommys psyche is killing us. Not everyone gets to succeed. Failure is just as important as success. When you teach someone that mediocrity will warrent success that leason stays with them for life. Then, when they're in the real world and find out that's not how it is they're boned.

As far as failure from a purely economic standpoint you can thank good old California for that, particularly San Francisco and thier run away housing market. It had gotten so bad that banks had to offer interest only home loans just so the people who worked in San Francisco could afford to live there. That's where all of these bizzar home loans came from. Interest only, low introductry teaser rates, and the ARM have screwed us. People bought homes they couldn't afford because they lacked the basic intelligence to run an amortization table and see what thier real payments would be. "Hey, my house payment this month is only $500 so I guess I can afford that $500 a month car payment." Then blamo, 2 years later when thier car isn't worth half it's value they find thier house payments gone up $300 a month and now they can't afford to make either payment. They destroy thier credit, have thier home foreclosed on, and now the banks stuck trying to get a new buyer to pay off what the original owner had no business owning.

Never borrow from tomorrow to have for today. Save for today so you can have something better tomorrow. If you can't pay cash for it and it's not a house or a car, YOU DONT NEED IT.


Alternative Fuel

America has a chance. It's a slim one and we really need to push on it hard. We have the chance to regain our techonological dominance over the rest of the world. The first person to market a vehicle powered by alternative energy that is cost effective, easy to use, and economical will own the car industry. It's imperative that American auto manufacturers see this. It's equally important for them to build a quality, reliable product. You think Honda's have a high resale value because they have a fancy logo? It's because thier engine is bulletproof. The Honda Cub motorcycle can be stipped of all it's engine oil, dropped off a building, and run over with a car and still run even if it's motor oil has been replaced with cooking oil. Don't believe me? Watch this video. It's the number one selling motor powered transport of all time. The only reason I bought a new Jeep, other than my love off the styling, is it's unlimited powertrain warrenty. Because it's not a matter of IF the new V6 motor is going to break, but WHEN. Why do you think they used the old AMC I6 engine for over 20 years. They couldn't design a better one!

If America can bring to market a series of alternative fuel cars that work you'll find a return to the 50's-60's era of American automotive dominance. If the forieghn makers (Japan, Korea, Germany) beat us to it, the American automotive industry is finished. Oil can only do so much. It's expensive to refine, toxic, and dangerous to transport. Electricity if provided by nuclear, solar, hydroelectric, or wind tubine is abundant, clean, and safe. There will never be fewer cars on the road, but there can be cleaner, safer, and more efficent ones.


I'm open to discussion on these topics. I feel I'm well informed on them. I know the US is having a rough patch but we've been here before. We can and will recover from this. But it will take sacrafice, hard work, and time.

to skippman,
I agree 100% except for that part about us having a chance in the alternate fuel. It seems all the ideas are so.. well. short looked? Like someone had a great idea and ran with it no matter the flaws. Sorry I'm not 100% right now, I had to take stuff for my shoulder it was killing me. The algae seems like the only chance we have. Corn oil.. What does everyone think about that? lol. Ethanol is exactly what I mean by short looked ideas. Oddly my gf was a Ethanol model... short lived too. The salt water for fuel concept seems pretty good. Hydrogen seems like a gimmick. If the Oil companies would sell or have to forfeit NiMH batteries that would be nice. With all of these crazy ideas. Why not harness one of the craziest. It theoretically would work. Oxygen would work right? Well, what is the most abundant element in the air? Nitrogen. Now we know nitrogen for power won't work and oxygen will. A crazy anomaly happens when radium is placed inside nitrogen gas. Oxygen appears. Oxygen for gas right? How long can it do this? Well hundreds of years. One Radium block per car would supply sufficient gas to run. Wouldn't that work? I tried googling something because I know some of you won't believe it. But, yes. Radium and nitrogen makes oxygen and splits the radium. It was an experiment done in the early 1900s. I'll find proof later, as for now it's a fact.
the guy who discovered this was Ernest Rutherford.

as for the idea of Radium, I know there is flaws don't worry. Just if we are going to make off the wall ideas why not make it the craziest.

I agree that the algae looks promising but there are multiple lines of research with the algae, one of my favorites is using algae to produce hydrogen. I agree that using hydrogen as a natural gas to power our cars is stupid but if we can find a cheap way to produce it (rather than get it from the ground), it is a rather powerful fuel with few side effects. Here's what I'm on about if you're wondering...

As for using corn...um that was the worst idea ever! It's already in short enough supply as a food so lets start using it to power our cars? wtf...

Solar is also a promising field but right now it is rather expensive. Solar panels and Li batteries are coming down in price rather quickly though so that's definitely a good prospect. The suns energy can also be used w/o solar panels too, eg. solar towers that function in much the same way as a nuclear plant (using steam energy).

As for nuclear, I don't know why it isn't being used more in this country. It's safe and efficient and many other industrialized countries have already moved to it.

I'd agree that the good ol' US of A is being rather ignorant at the moment...

Well, aside from the fact that having a radioactive isotope (radium) in your car violates many federal laws it's also a potential health risk as Radium is over one million times more radioactive than the same mass of uranium. As for Rutherfords experiments with it, it's not something I'm particularly familiar with.

Hydrogen is a bit gimicy, your right. The Chrysler Turbine Car which is on display here at the St. Louis Muesum of Transport was a pretty clever idea. It basically took the idea of a multifueler engine to the extreme and would run on almost anything combustable. I still think the future lies in electric cars. Electric motors are tremendously more efficent than gasoline powered ones, provide massive ammounts of torque, and are virtually maintenance free. The trick is getting batteries that can store enough power and providing cheap electricity.

I think the Chevy Volt is a step in the right direction by providing a stepping stone between the existing infrastucture of petrol based cars and the future of electic based cars as it can run on either. This means as you get away from the early adoption centers of major cities to more rural based areas the car is still functional. It will also run on Ethenol, Petrol, or any blending there of.

People expect this vast overnight change. That's not how science, or engineering for that matter, really work. Things evolve. Every once in a while we make a startling discovery (the transistor, intergrated circuit, superconductors, etc) that catches us by suprise but it still takes years of techonological evolution before what is theoretical on paper becomes practicle to produce. Look at solar power. We've been working on that for decades and still can't create a solar cell that's over 50% efficent.


*** EDIT ***

There is no true corn shortage in this country. The government has subsidized agri-business to artifically keep the price of corn up by paying farmers NOT to grow crops. If all the farmable land was actually used we would wind up with a grain surplus that would be staggering. Even if we allow enough land for things like propar crop rotation.

To top off the electric car idea. The only flaw is jobs again. But, then again we wouldn't cut out oil completely and realistically it would take many years to phase it out and by then new jobs would be created. The NiMH batteries are the key to having a long distance electric car. Ideally a car that could get about 1000 miles per charge is what we need. With lithium ion, I believe our furthest is 300 with the supercar. IF our cars got 1000 miles per charge, and took 2 hours to charge off 220. In any driving speed say 70mph that's about 14 hours. If you were on a road trip driving across country. If you drove 14 hours then took a lunch break for an hour plugged up. You could then drive about 500 more miles so before you ended up going to sleep for the night the car would still have a quarter tank. lol. I think that we will have to have the NiMH batteries to do this. But, make it a government regulated cell. Because if we leave it to the owners ::cough cough:: Cheveron. They would mark up the cost so much it would be cheaper to have a gas car.

Very happy with you guys here, you've kept this thread clean. Continue the discussion.

hercules71185. I deleted your double post for the sake of cleanliness

dicecca112 wrote:Very happy with you guys here, you've kept this thread clean. Continue the discussion.

This thread earns the beaker seal of approval!

Herc,

What your describing is a quantum leap in battery technology that might take 10 years or better to see. 1000 miles on a charge is further than even the most fuel efficent cars can achieve now. True electric cars are more efficent but it's still asking a lot. I'm interested in that algea link that was posted earlier. I didn't know algea could be used to produce hydrogen but if that's true that could solve the production problems if harnessed successfully.

As for creating American jobs, production really is never going to be a major part of the US economy the way it was in the 50's and 60's. EPA requirements, pay scales, health insurance, and governmental regulation have all but assured that those jobs will be performed in other countries were labor is cheaper and there are no enviromental requirements. Quality of product isn't something people look for anymore in the age of Wal-Mart. And even if it was, domestic produced goods aren't the caliber they were 20 years ago. Get into a Chevy, then hop in a Jetta. Which feels more solid? Which feels higher quality?

Science will be America's number one product in the future, perhaps taking a back seat only to food stuffs. By science I mean consumer electronics technology, communications technology, computer technology, and most importantly pharmecutical technology. Medically speaker our pharmecutical companies dwarf the foreighn ones. America is the world leader in health technology. Hmm... wonder why that is when we don't have national healthcare? <insert sarcasm here>

Lol, yea. I agree with it being a quantum leap. But, do you honestly think a majority of people will buy the electric car with less. What happened to the Honda EV series. It got almost 80 miles per charge. A typical person drives MUCH less than that every day. Theoretically it is fine. People look at selective flaws. 1 gas car for back up. Insurance will cost 400 a year, and tags 30 a year. The amount you would save on gas would well exceed that. So just having the car would save money. The gas car could be for a road trip or abnormal driving distances. Not only are we still kicking in the medical field, but we also have NASA.
Medical tech. and overall tech. This is what I mean by looking outside the box is good. As long as you are not close minded to the ideas you create. We created a 3d image. Almost like a hologram. It's a plate that rotates really fast and makes a 3d image so you can walk around and see the insides of a person. Why not just develop a software program with 3d rendering? A flat panel and mouse is much cheaper than this million dollar pixelated image.
Another good example is spending over 11 million on developing a pen to write in zero gravity. Their retaliation was wood burns. Ok make a pencil out of something that would melt instead of catch fire? or how about a cover to put over the lead? And come on 11 million is a bit much for a pen.

I like the tree fungus that was found deep in the rain forests that makes a fuel that is like diesel in almost every way.