Horace Heffner wrote:
Industry would buy off the Fund managers
as quickly as they subvert members of Congress.
Wrong. Fund managers don't face re-election.
Elected or not, they like money and they can be bought. Investment
fund managers at Merrill Lynch will bought and paid for by Enron.
What I meant to say here is that you should not concentrate
decision-making power or wealth in the hands of any organization,
government or private. A "Manhattan Project" unified effort to solve
the energy crisis, or develop cold fusion, is bound to fail. We must
have free market competition with many different independent groups.
In rare cases, when we must concentrate power in one organization
such as NASA, that organization must be directly controlled by
Congress, and by the will of the people.
Besides, a green oriented group like that would be full of whistle blowers.
I know some dysfunctional and corrupt green-oriented groups. But more
to the point, not a single green-group has expressed any interest in
cold fusion. I contribute to some of the well-run green groups, but I
would not give those people any hand in deciding energy policy
because they will not help cold fusion.
Second, this would put the Energy Fund beyond the reach of the
taxpayers,
Wrong again, as I pointed out earlier. A private fund is subject to
lawsuit and criminal charges, unlike our legislators.
I see. I was thinking in terms of the Japanese semi-public
corporations, which answer to no one. Still, I oppose concentrating
decision-making power in the hands of any one organization, or using
public money to start up private organizations.
[snip immaterial examples of bad guys because there are plenty of
examples of corruption in both government and private industry.]
Not on this scale! The Japanese semi-public companies have created
the largest peacetime government deficit in history, as a percent of
the GDP. They have effectively bankrupted the second wealthiest
nation in history.
Well, Jed, looks like you simply want to hear yourself talk and blow
smoke. I put forward my plan to solve the problem 4 years ago.
I do not think that any plan can solve this problem. Human creativity
is organic and it only thrives in unplanned, chaotic, uncontrolled
competition. Probably free-market competition, but academic
competition might work.
That is what I thought 4 years ago too. Perhaps I did not say so. I
do not want to put you down because most of your ideas are excellent,
but this one I disagree with.
It was concrete and executable.
I do not think you can engineer a breakthrough. If we were talking
about building a new Internet or a highway system, with existing
technology or incremental improvements, then a centralized planning
and funding organization might be a good choice.
- Jed
