Posted on 04/17/2011 6:41:25 PM PDT by Walter Scott Hudson
Atlas Shrugged Part I hit movie theaters this weekend. While entertaining and provocative, there were times when the film seemed a bit preachy, and the characters a tad exaggerated. In particular, there's a scene where steel magnate Hank Rearden is engaging a government bureaucrat from the State Science Institute. Rearden has developed a new metal, lighter and tougher than steel, which has tremendous applications. Rather than congratulate him, the G-man is there to deliver a reprimand for overproduction. Flabbergasted, Rearden asks a simple question. "Is Rearden Metel good or not?"
The question is irrelevent. If Rearden Metal is not good, it's a physical danger to the public. If it is good, it's a social danger.This exchange struck me as unrealistically frank. That was until I came home and saw video of U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. making precisely the same argument about Apple's iPad.
A few short weeks ago I came to the House floor after having purchased an iPad and said that I happened to believe, Mr. Speaker, that at some point in time this new device, which is now probably responsible for eliminating thousands of American jobs -- Now Borders is closing stores because, why do you need to go to Borders anymore? Why do you need to go to Barnes & Noble? Buy an iPad and download your newspaper, download your book, download your magazine...Were we living a century ago, he'd be protesting the automobile...What becomes of publishing companies and publishing company jobs? What becomes of bookstores and librarians and all of the jobs associated with paper? In the not too distant future, such jobs simply will not exist.
Steve Jobs is doing pretty well... Certainly, it's made life more efficient for Americans. But the iPad is produced in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsrealblog.com ...
Scary!
I am reading and writing this on an IPad 2.
what was profitable made in china will no longer be profitable if made in usa, thus any tariff on made in china good won’t automatically mean the good will get produced in the usa. USA will simply do without that product. This isn’t just with apple product, but million other product made in china
Well we saw this back in the 60’s and 70’s. By the time I hit my fifth year in college one electrocics movie of the future and me so frazzled I quit the ROTC and signed up. Was no lifer but now, now I wonder if that might not have been a mistake. This , this madness has been way worse than the movie I watched( just an educational bit) because the ramifications are so darned destructive to the human spirit. Read darned near any book in the last ten years, novel or non fiction and there’s always the mesmerized kids no longer watching TV but texting, computers, iPads, madness because no one goes outside at all anymore; or very few, electronics is more stimulating; sad, tragic, and I believe if not used correctly, very evil.JMHO
The right to a tangible good is necessarily an obligation for somebody to provide it for you; making such a right wholly unlike the actual rights enumerated in the constitution. It is clear by they way he rambles on that this thought never has crossed his little mind.
He's a very shallow and unserious person, just like his father.
Buggy whips. ‘nuff said.
- Sent from my iPad
The mark in this case is Apple: he wants to extort them into giving him and his buddies money.
These guys are gangbanger thugs, nothing more.
PS: iPads could be produced in the U.S., and they wouldn't go up in price...if you make them in right to work states. If you make them in unionized states, they wouldn't go up all that much more - iPads are made by machines, not people. Apple could produce in the U.S., and used to. They only offshore now 'cuz they get a few pennies more and the stigma is not as bad as it used to be.
Where does one even start to respond to such a weakly thought out story.
I love my iPad and do not find the need to download books but for a few classics as no copyright, therefore free. The Constitution and some useful pamphlets to have if I need them. I like to hold "a book" also am a collector of signed books. Donate what I want to share, to certain small hometown libraries.
Can read the London Telegraph [free app I like better than the online paper] when at Barnes & Noble or Panera getting coffee/lunch. Pop in my "ears" to listen to Rush. I use the free wireless always available, so do not pay per month for AT&T etc. Wireless at home as well. Even my GPS is an app.
iPad Saves Company From Extinction
Apps are made by companies all over the US, the most popular game was made by a kid here in the US, websites are adapted by American corporations. The technology is so vast in its applications to say that China makes all of the iPad is not true. Just like my iPhone a smaller version, it cannot just be said one company makes it all and it is all made in China. There are third party 306554 mol apps – and 60000 iPad Apps. The user decides.
For instance companies like Tellabs[TLAB] San Jose offers multi-service IP switch family that allows carriers and service providers to deliver frame relay, ATM, Ethernet, and Internet protocol services. So much goes into what makes everything work that we carry around with us today. NAND flash memory, chips at the heart of products like Apple's iPhone and iPad came out of Japan. But in the same sense other countries use technology made and designed and engineered by companies like equipment makers similar to Tellabs USA Illinois etc which has offices all over the world.
Borders I was never a fan of, never liked the layout, coffee areas in a dark area of the store so not as inviting to stay for a while..and books will always be available, despite the Kindle and like book readers, children's sections where parents sit reading with their kids-- Barnes & Noble is always busy where I am or where ever I go to one as it is more than just a book store it is a lifestyle where friends meet, take the family, get a Starbucks or just sit and relax and enjoy a magazine, the newspaper. Barnes & Noble is the #1 Bookstore and will eventually go back to private to escape : Read the case for going private as in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act regulations and restrictions which are costly to a company.
Amazon is favored by some but not something I ever use. It's a strictly on line experience. Not so warm and fuzzy.
Someday, I hope Jim has a FreeRepublic app. Now I just google.
This article was too simplistic and the technology which makes up this ever growing group of new tech products is far from being just 2 tin cans joined to each other by a stretched out string.
We haven't even touched on the iTunes store, iPod which is a fundamental part of all of this.
old Supply and Demand
Remember back in aftermath of Katrina, Jr. was angry at the media for showing the looting that took place instead of focusing on what he thought was more important.
“Great Again,” coming out soon by Silicon Valley serial entrepreneur Henry “Hank” Nothhaft, CEO of semiconductor miniaturization company Tessera, and former CEO of Danger, the maker of the Sidekick phone.
Nothhaft offers a mix of policy solutions that include tax incentives for companies to manufacture in the United States, loans, making permanent a tax credit for research and development, and trying to get venture capitalists to invest more in manufacturing start-ups.
It’s clear, however, what stiff competition the United States is up against, especially under the Obama Adminstration.
In his book, Nothhaft recalls visiting China in February 2010:
"where the mayor of a medium-sized city basically offered me the moon if I would open any type of R&D or production facility there. No tax at all for five years. The land and all construction costs for the facility provided free. All utilities paid for three years. Employee salaries paid for three years. Everything else — all taken care of.”
Nothhaft didn’t spell out what he decided, but he did say that he had to do what was best for the company — the same calculus that Apple’s leaders probably made when they decided to use Foxconn to manufacture its products.
http://www.cultofmac.com/jesse-jackson-jr-blasts-apple-for-manufacturing-the-ipad-in-china/90519
If Jesse Jackson did this in any other country, he would have been arrested and then shot for coercion and intimidation and blackmail of their industries. In China and Russia he would have disappeared after being jailed and I am SICK AND TIRED of seeing our government roll over and not protect our business interests. Why bother setting up a business if I have to end up shelling massive amounts of money to all and sundry, just to be allowed to operate without being intimidated? The government takes enough and I shouldn’t have to pay some black shyster MORE in order to function without threats.
“They only offshore now ‘cuz they get a few pennies more and the stigma is not as bad as it used to be.”
And China isn’t hostile to businesses like they are here in the US. China and East Asia don’t have an inbuilt welfare system and don’t let black ‘organizations’ intimidate their business owners and disrupt business operations all for the sake of extorting more money.
If the Jesse Jacksons did this in any other country, they would have been arrested and then shot for coercion and intimidation and blackmail of their industries. In China and Russia they would have disappeared after being jailed and I am SICK AND TIRED of seeing our government roll over and not protect our business interests. Why bother setting up a business if I have to end up shelling massive amounts of money to all and sundry, just to be allowed to operate without being intimidated? The government takes enough and I shouldn’t have to pay some black shyster MORE in order to function without threats.
It’s the job of the stupid govnerment to protect it’s economic interests and businesses have every right to go where they want to. Businesses have every right to go where they’re wanted and they have every right to find a place ot do business without being extorted by some black racist.
Most people hang on as long as they can, but at some point...you pick up your marbles and go somewhere else. Let them starve back in Thugville.
PS, the poster child for this is Detroit. Mr. Jackson and his friends certainly had a hand in creating that mess as well. Maybe he can go run a hustle on the subsistence farmers who will be left there after the last real business leaves town.
“PS, the poster child for this is Detroit. Mr. Jackson and his friends certainly had a hand in creating that mess as well. Maybe he can go run a hustle on the subsistence farmers who will be left there after the last real business leaves town.”
At some point, people are going to just get whatever marketable skills they can and leave to other countries. Interestingly, many countries are a lot more strict about who they’ll accept as citizens and unlike here, they have a keen interest in protecting their businesses. I’m patriotic and adore this country, yet if this looter mentality doesn’t end, the system WILL collapse and the smart and hardworking and responsible should not waste their lives cleaning up after the messes being made and then still try to carry themselves and eventually a family of their own.
Rearden asks a simple question. "Is Rearden Metel good or not?" The question is irrelevent. If Rearden Metal is not good, it's a physical danger to the public. If it is good, it's a social danger. This exchange struck me as unrealistically frank. That was until I came home and saw video of U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. making precisely the same argument about Apple's iPad.
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