The Oil on the surface in the Gulf has seemed to disappear. Where did it go? My bet is that it is still there, below the surface and the Marshes are still loaded with it. Let’s see what the “experts” say.
Oil in gulf is degrading, becoming harder to find, NOAA head says
Oil from the BP blowout is degrading rapidly in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico and becoming increasingly difficult to find on the water surface, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Tuesday.
“The light crude oil is biodegrading quickly,” NOAA director Jane Lubchenco said during the response team daily briefing. “We know that a significant amount of the oil has dispersed and been biodegraded by naturally occurring bacteria.”
Lubchenco said, however, that both the near- and long-term environmental effects of the release of several million barrels of oil remain serious and to some extent unpredictable.
“The sheer volume of oil that’s out there has to mean there are some pretty significant impacts,” she said. “What we have yet to determine is the full impact the oil will have not just on the shoreline, not just on wildlife, but beneath the surface.”
But much of the oil appears to have been broken down into tiny, microscopic particles that are being consumed by bacteria. Little or none of the oil is on seafloor, she said, but is instead floating in the gulf waters.
Her conclusions come from the work of several NOAA boats now collecting water samples, as well as the analysis of academics brought in to help study the spill effects. The goal, she said, is to get a scientifically sound assessment of the overall environmental effects of the spill.
“To do this, we’re working with the best scientific minds in the government, as well as the independent scientific community, to produce an estimate of just how much oil has been skimmed, burned, contained, evaporated and dispersed,” she said. “We’re getting close to an answer.”
And from the NY Times:
John Amos, president of SkyTruth, an environmental advocacy group that sharply criticized the early, low estimates of the size of the BP leak, noted that no oil had gushed from the well for nearly two weeks.
“Oil has a finite life span at the surface,” Mr. Amos said Tuesday, after examining fresh radar images of the slick. “At this point, that oil slick is really starting to dissipate pretty rapidly.”
The dissolution of the slick should reduce the risk of oil killing more animals or hitting shorelines. But it does not end the many problems and scientific uncertainties associated with the spill, and federal leaders emphasized this week that they had no intention of walking away from those problems any time soon.
The effect on sea life of the large amounts of oil that dissolved below the surface is still a mystery. Two preliminary government reports on that issue have found concentrations of toxic compounds in the deep sea to be low, but the reports left many questions, especially regarding an apparent decline in oxygen levels in the water.
From the Washington Post:
Now, 14 days after the well was closed and 100 days after the blowout, U.S. government scientists are working on calculations that could shed some light on Hayward’s analysis (even if they can’t shed light on why he said it). They are trying to figure out where all the oil went.
Up to 4 million barrels (167 million gallons), the vast majority of the spill, remains unaccounted for in government statistics. Some of it has, most likely, been cleaned up by nature. Other amounts may be gone from the water, but they could have taken on a second life as contaminants in the air, or in landfills around the Gulf Coast.
And some oil is still out there — probably mixed with chemical dispersants. Some scientists have described it floating in underwater clouds, which one compared to a toxic fog.
“That stuff’s somewhere,” said James H. Cowan Jr., a professor at Louisiana State University. His research has shown concentrations of oil still floating miles from the wellhead. “It’s going to be with us for a while. I’m worried about some habitats being exposed chronically to low concentrations of toxins. . . . If the water’s contaminated, the animals are going to be contaminated.”
‘The truth is in the middle’
We’ll be living with the mess for at least this century. And Just because you can’t see it, doesn’t mean it’s not there in some shape or toxic form.
Tags: BP, Chemical Dispersants, concentrations of toxins, Gulf Oil Spill, NOAA, Surface Oil, Toxic Fog
Loading ...
You peeps are cruel. I take one last peak before heading off to work in the small building and you load up with tasty tunes and topical topics.
Where’s the off switch?
Holy crap! I knew it was bad, but…
Oil industry safety record blown open
@mb: If you find a cure for OLPS*, let me know.
*One last peek syndrome
Good Morning everyone ~ I finally get to post a little something. I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to the news ….. only cause I’ve been so overwhelmed. Good news is, Wendy will be coming home on the 24th of August. Her grandma will be coming to. She is going to be living with us …….. so it will be a tad bit different around the old household.
Work has been okay, I really can’t complain ….. it does feel good to be back to some normalcy. Also I am glad that I had a job to go back to. I just hope that I can do the full time gig. That is my fear – of not being able to work f/t. But we will see…..
I imagine tD will have this on the new thread.
S.E.C. Charges Brothers With $550 Million Fraud
@mb: maybe this is a more effective off button
Finally the weekend is here, this week at work was difficult. On Wednesday a mail carriers mother died and within 3 hours a supervisors father died, odd coincidence.
Totally unrelated;
Currently, 44% of all of Congress and specifically 48% of the Senate are millionaires. That compares with the general public, of whom millionaires are only a whopping 1%.
can anyone explain why raising the incremental tax by 3.6% on the richest americans is going to send this country into the turlet. if a sole proprietor is taking home 300K a year, they will pay an additional tax of 3.6% * 50K or 1,800 dollars. thats hardly enough to pay a new hire.
lets say a new hire makes a whopping 12,000 a year doing something. for the change in taxes to equal this, wouldn’t a sole proprietor have to be showing income at about 583,000 dollars
(583K-250K)*0.036 = 12K
if a person is taking that much home, they have nothing to complain about, especially if by paying a paltry 12,000 additional in taxes their grandkids won’t grow up in poverty.
i will be happy to admit that my analysis is wrong if somebody can explain why.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) gained about $9.2 million. Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) gained about $3 million, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) had an estimated $2.6 million gain, and Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) gained about $2.8 million.
Some lawmakers have profited from investments in companies that have received federal bailouts; dozens of lawmakers are invested in Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America.
Among executive branch officials, CRP says the richest is Securities and Exchange Commission Chairwoman Mary L. Schapiro, with a net worth estimated at $26 million.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is next, worth an estimated $21 million. President Barack Obama is the sixth-wealthiest, worth about an estimated $4 million. Vice President Joe Biden has often tagged himself as an original blue collar man. The CRP backs him up, putting his net worth at just $27,000.
——————–
News Alert: Economic growth slows to 2.4 percent pace in 2Q, weakest in nearly a year
08:35 AM EDT Friday, July 30, 2010
——————–
WASHINGTON — The recovery lost momentum in the second quarter as growth slowed to a 2.4 percent pace, its most sluggish showing in nearly a year and too weak to drive down unemployment.
Weaker spending by consumers, less growth coming from companies restocking shrunken stockpiles and a bigger drag from the nation’s trade deficits were the main factors behind the second quarter’s slowdown.
For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
@dan-: You need michele to analyze this. The troubling fact is the wealthy feel, no believe, they are entitled to all the bounty and booty the world has to offer and the rest of us are part of the slave cast. It’s that simple. The days of responsible rich people have passed, they’re going for the full monty imho.
Millionaires to Congress: Tax Us!
Wealthy Americans Use Personal Tax Breaks to End Bush Tax Cuts for the Rich in 2010
Boston, MA — With Congress poised to act this year on the Bush tax cuts, a group of American millionaires is calling for an end to the tax breaks that have benefited them – but left the rest of the country with a crippling debt and dwindling budgets for education, health and other vital services at the state and Federal levels.
These millionaires are among the 700 bsusiness leaders and individuals in the top 5% of wealth and income who make up the Responsible Wealth network, which has been instrumental in, among other things, preventing the permanent repeal of the estate tax which President Bush had vowed to eliminate. They are asking other wealthy Americans to join them in their efforts to end the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy once and for all by taking the Tax Fairness Pledge and directing their tax breaks to fight for tax policies that benefit all Americans.
The growing list of Pledge signers includes:
Judy Pigott, an author and co-founder of Personal Safety Nets who lives in Seattle, Washington and is the daughter of the late Formula One race car driver Pat Pigott. Her family wealth comes from manufacturing Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks.
Jeffrey Hollender, the co-founder of Seventh Generation natural products, he lives in Vermont. He is a self-made millionaire, author and entrepreneur who is a leader in the socially responsible business movement.
Eric Schoenberg, a behavioral economist at Columbia University’s School of Business who lives in New Jersey. He was a successful investment banker, after a stint with the State Department, and built his wealth on the fortune his father amassed in the computer and telecoms industries.
Marnie Thompson, an education consultant and co-founder of the Fund for Democratic Communities in Greensboro, NC where she lives. She accepted her inheritance from her father, an Ohio businessman, on the condition that she could give it away to charity.
Mike Lapham, director of United for a FairEconomy’s Responsible Wealth project and an inheritor of family wealth from a paper mill business in upstate New York. He lives in Boston.
In taking the Pledge, each of these individuals agrees to donate some or all of their tax savings under the Bush tax cuts to support tax fairness organizing and/or other economic justice efforts. An online Tax Break Calculator allows anyone to plug in their 2009 income and other assets and quickly estimate their individual share of the Bush tax cuts.
“We want citizens and lawmakers alike to see the link between the continuing Bush tax cuts and the growing deficit,” said Brian Miller, executive director of United for a Fair Economy. “Wealthy citizens rejecting the cuts and demanding their taxes be raised is a great way to get people’s attention.” With recent polls showing public concern about the national deficit at a 20-year high and a majority opposing cuts to government services at this time of historic unemployment, Responsible Wealth will also be making its case to Congress that restoring the pre-2001 tax rates for the wealthiest Americans is one obvious solution to America’s fiscal crisis.
“These tax cuts were irresponsible when they were passed in 2001 and 2003. In the midst of a deep recession, they are downright inexcusable,” said Mike Lapham, director of the Responsible Wealth project and one of the millionaire signers of the Pledge. “To be clear,” he added, “low- and middle-income households only received a small portion of the Bush tax cuts. The overwhelming share of the income, capital gains and dividend cuts went to wealthy taxpayers.” A report by Citizens for Tax Justice shows that nearly half of the Bush tax cuts went to the top 5% of income-earners, while the bottom 60% of income-earners received less than 15% of the Bush tax cuts. Responsible Wealth seeks to reverse the Bush era-cuts, the total cost of which will reach $2.5 trillion by the end of 2010.
“Members of Responsible Wealth recognize that their own prosperity and success would not be possible without the foundation of a strong public education system, an effective transportation network, a strong legal system and more,” notes Lapham. “Those are the kinds of foundational building blocks that we get through our tax system. Responsible Wealth members are more than happy to pay their share to support those public investments that they have benefited so greatly from.”
Responsible Wealth, a project of United for a Fair Economy, has been working for equitable tax policies that create widespread prosperity since 1997. In addition to preserving the estate tax, to which fewer than one percent of families are subject and which has generated $1 trillion in revenues over the last ten years, the business leaders and high net worth members of Responsible Wealth have also been actively engaged in shareholder action. They have filed more than 80 shareholder resolutions on CEO pay and other corporate accountability issues and have often transferred their proxies to lower-income stakeholders, providing them access to corporate boardrooms.
http://www.faireconomy.org/press_room/2010/millionaires_to_congress_tax_usk
@mb: i’m beginning to think that obama hates small business is in the same league as obama wants to kill granny. its nothing more than an emotionally charge right wing talking point that is only true on the planet bizzaro.
I think the important thing about congressional corruption is not the funding these ass holes get for their campaigns in terms of being bought, but the increase in their personal wealth….this is just WRONG! There used to be rules about reps being regular citizens….grrrrrrrrrr
@Gbasin: Geez, with those odds ya think we’ll ever get a fair shake?
@Gbasin: Great concept and good on ‘em but I don’t see it going very far at this point.
@mb:
Not much of a chance at this point in time, but hopeless? I hope not.
The Deception of Real-World Inception
By David Sirota
Creators Syndicate, 7/30/10
For all of its “Matrix”-like convolutions and “Alice in Wonderland” allusions, the new film “Inception” adds something significant to the ancient ruminations about reality’s authenticity — something profoundly relevant to this epoch of confusion. In the movie’s tale of corporate espionage, we are asked to ponder this moment’s most disturbing epistemological questions: Namely, how are ideas deposited in people’s minds, and how incurable are those ideas when they are wrong?
Many old sci-fi stories, like politics and advertising of the past, subscribed to the “Clockwork Orange” theory that says blatantly propagandistic repetition is the best way to pound concepts into the human brain. But as “Inception’s” main character, Cobb, posits, the “most resilient parasite” of all is an idea that individuals are subtly led to think they discovered on their own.
This argument’s real-world application was previously outlined by Cal State Fullerton’s Nancy Snow, who wrote in 2004 that today’s most pervasive and effective propaganda is the kind that is “least noticeable” and consequently “convinces people they are not being manipulated.” The flip side is also true: When an idea is obviously propaganda, it loses credibility. Indeed, in the same way the subconscious of “Inception’s” characters eviscerate known invaders, we are reflexively hostile to ideas when we know they come from agenda-wielding intruders.
These laws of cognition, of course, are brilliantly exploited by a 24-7 information culture that has succeeded in making “your mind the scene of the crime,” as “Inception’s” trailer warns.
To read the full newspaper column, go to: here
Gulf of Mexico Has Long Been a Sink of Pollution
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
The gulf has been suffering for decades before the rig explosion, with the oil industry, farming and lax oversight contributing to a dead zone in the gulf.
The Oil Spill’s Effects on Wildlife
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/todayspaper/index.html
A JOB FOR OUR TONI D
Toni where are you
Read this
JOB OPENING: SOCIAL MEDIA MAVEN
Friends,
Change Congress is hiring A SOCIAL MEDIA MAVEN (aka, “Maven”)(logo in the works).
Maven will be charged with cultivating Change Congress’s social media community. Using whatever tools make sense, s/he will drive messaging and activity to grow the community of activists eager to wrench fundamental change in DC.
Requirements:
Endless social media (blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo, etc.) experience;
Endless passion for the cause of fundamental change;
Endless energy to leverage the political events of the moment into a continuing narrative about why fundamental change is necessary.
Duties:
Working with sister organizations, you will feed the community regularly and well, with messaging around news events, candidates, organizations, and activism connected to the cause of changing Congress, as well as petitions where appropriate;
Working with researchers, you will identify stories relevant to the cause, and feed the community with those stories;
Working with leaders from the reform community, you will feed the Change Congress blog, either with your own content, or with invited content;
Working with your own imagination, you will plot strategies for driving energy to this movement;
In 10 years time, you will be thought of as the one person who understood how social media could change the world, because you will have changed the world using social media. (How management will assess this requirement is still under review.)
This position is currently part-time, though it will grow with demonstrated success. We will agree on a regular level of output, and on targets to measure success. You will be wildly underpaid given the work you’re doing (saving democracy), but you’ll feel very good about it.
Please, only qualified, serious candidates need apply. Submit your resume to monica@change-congress.org. Include 2-3 paragraphs or a link to a YouTube video (joke) (maybe) telling us why you would be perfect for this job.
And if you’re not the perfect person, please pass this along to that person.
Thanks!
Larry Lessig
9/11 Responder Aid Package Fails In House
WASHINGTON — A bill that would have provided up to $7.4 billion in aid to people sickened by World Trade Center dust fell short in the House on Thursday, raising the possibility that the bulk of compensation for the ill will come from a legal settlement hammered out in the federal courts.
The bill would have provided free health care and compensation payments to 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who fell ill after working in the trade center ruins.
It failed to win the needed two-thirds majority, 255-159. The vote was largely along party lines, with 12 Republicans joining Democrats supporting the measure.
For weeks, a judge and teams of lawyers have been urging 10,000 former ground zero workers to sign on to a court-supervised settlement that would split $713 million among people who developed respiratory problems and other illnesses after inhaling trade center ash.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/29/911-responder-aid-package-fails-house_n_664562.html
This is just unacceptable – sad even.
@Gbasin: it certainly does resonate when billionaires speak up for tax increases; when they take up causes that people associate with the underdogs
hard for the rightwing to label them as socialist, socialist billionaires doesn’t sound right
they reserve this supposedly negative labeling for the real underdogs, the riffraff, the “small” people
@Ramses: i don’t get this sandy
It failed to win the needed two-thirds majority
since when is two thirds a majority? i thought it was 1/2 +1
a change of the rules is definitely needed
I’m using a computer @ work – - – it’s a piece of shit. So I can’t post like I usually do.
U would think being in a school that has computer techs – that they would FIX shit, but
I guess that the maint. dept. does NOT rate.
@mire: the 2/3 was a special procedural manuever:
The measure failed to draw the necessary two-thirds majority. Democrats had opted for this procedural route rather than a simple majority because it blocked potential GOP amendments. Ultimately, 12 Republicans crossed party lines to vote with Democrats for passage.
hey sandy, how are you? so you’ll be living with grandma? I think you’ll be glad to be back at work… just kidding
happy to hear you’re taking well to the working-again life
George’s ironic wit,
They brainwashed my great uncle
Brainwashed my cousin Bob
They even got my grandma
When she was working for the mob
Brainwash you while you’re sleeping
While in your traffic jam
Brainwash you while you’re weeping
While still a baby in your pram
Brainwashed by the military
Brainwashed under duress
Brainwashed by the media
You’re brainwashed by the press
Brainwashed by computer
Brainwashed by mobile phones
Brainwashed by the satellite
Brainwashed to the bone
3 Americans killed in Afghanistan, making July deadliest month of war for U.S.
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month’s record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly 9-year-old war.
The three died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan the day before, a NATO statement said Friday. The statement gave no nationalities, but U.S. officials say all three were Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending notification of kin.
U.S. and NATO commanders had warned that casualties would rise as the international military force ramps up the war against the Taliban, especially in their southern strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. President Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan last December in a bid to turn back a resurgent Taliban.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-afghanistan-record-deaths-20100731,0,3020370.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fnews%2Fnationworld%2Fworld+%28L.A.+Times+-+World+News%29
Google, CIA Invest in ‘Future’ of Web Monitoring
The investment arms of the CIA and Google are both backing a company that monitors the web in real time — and says it uses that information to predict the future.
The company is called Recorded Future, and it scours tens of thousands of websites, blogs and Twitter accounts to find the relationships between people, organizations, actions and incidents — both present and still-to-come. In a white paper, the company says its temporal analytics engine “goes beyond search” by “looking at the ‘invisible links’ between documents that talk about the same, or related, entities and events.”
The idea is to figure out for each incident who was involved, where it happened and when it might go down. Recorded Future then plots that chatter, showing online “momentum” for any given event.
“The cool thing is, you can actually predict the curve, in many cases,” says company CEO Christopher Ahlberg, a former Swedish Army Ranger with a PhD in computer science.
Which naturally makes the 16-person Cambridge, Massachusetts, firm attractive to Google Ventures, the search giant’s investment division, and to In-Q-Tel, which handles similar duties for the CIA and the wider intelligence community.
It’s not the very first time Google has done business with America’s spy agencies. Long before it reportedly enlisted the help of the National Security Agency to secure its networks, Google sold equipment to the secret signals-intelligence group. In-Q-Tel backed the mapping firm Keyhole, which was bought by Google in 2004 — and then became the backbone for Google Earth.
This appears to be the first time, however, that the intelligence community and Google have funded the same startup, at the same time. No one is accusing Google of directly collaborating with the CIA. But the investments are bound to be fodder for critics of Google, who already see the search giant as overly cozy with the U.S. government, and worry that the company is starting to forget its “don’t be evil” mantra
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/#ixzz0vB08csnD
Read More http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/07/exclusive-google-cia/#ixzz0vB00JzON
Thanks mire, I’m feeling not up to par. I want to be 100% – I feel like I’m 35%. But it is good to be back (kinda)
Yes Grandma is coming to town ……. she is really a neat lady. I’m looking forward to it. Plus I didn’t think she should be in a “home”
Thanks dan for explaining that
“it uses that information to predict the future.”
Really???? What in the fuck does that mean -
@Ramses: i doubt that its predicting the future like the great carnac. i think its more the case that people who have similar interests and write about it are going to find each other (perhaps using the google search mechanism). as they do that, they will crosspost or create relationships with each other. at some point things like that become a self fulfilling prophecy.
@dan-: i don’t remember the title or author but years ago there was a short science fiction story about how the voting process for the us had been reduced to one person chosen by a computer to be representative of what the majority of americans were. on election day, that one person would choose the leader. i’m sure there was more to the story but it was a long time ago…
@Ramses: you’re such a nice person, sandy
I didn’t think she should be in a “home”
I do wish my grandaughters will feel like that about me one day
@Ramses:
“Who . What , When and Why”, data mining, inqtel & Keyhole corps where bought by Google to collect wifi info and was basically wiretapping U.S. citizens.
Googles relationship with the NSN is secret, but this report points out it’s growing and expanding relationship.
@mire:
GMTA! I got that email and forwarded it to her.
News is up with a great rant from Anthony Weiner.
sorry I’m late but I’ve had a busy morning.
@dan-: i remember that story, dan – it was in a book by a social scientist by the last name of ferguson, but not a relative of the rightwing idiot we see on our tv
the theory was, the range of acceptable issues for debate in election campaigns are smaller and smaller as time goes on (by design); this results in a restriction of democracy, that is, fewer and fewer people are motivated to vote each time because they don’t care about those issues, they’re not relevant to their lives; so it’s a choice about tweedle dum and tweedle dee, with very little difference between the two, and a very small range of voters voting and these voters are basically indifferent to both positions, both parties, or both candidates as the case may be; there will not be landslides, just a couple of votes in the end will make a difference, with these few voters choosing one or the other, which wouldn’t change anything anyway, because both candidates are preselected as acceptable by the establishment, the elite, the rulers of the world and everything else is just a kabuki performance to give people the illusion of choice. This book came out in 60s or the 70s, i will have to dig it up again; if only i could remember the full name of the author or the title…. it was one of my political science reads when i was going to college
@mb: you’d be good for it too, mb, that kind of work I mean
now i really need to start working or I will be looking for a job
dan-:
July 30, 2010 at 8:49 am
can anyone explain why raising the incremental tax by 3.6% on the richest americans is going to send this country into the turlet. if a sole proprietor is taking home 300K a year, they will pay an additional tax of 3.6% * 50K or 1,800 dollars. thats hardly enough to pay a new hire…
…i will be happy to admit that my analysis is wrong if somebody can explain why.
—————
I can’t and won’t explain that your analysis is wrong but I have a few comments. Keep in mind that my in-head background details of the proposed tax are nil…or nearly nil…which is a bad place to start tossing around ideas.
First, a “small business” is defined differently by different people. The only time I sought a loan from the Small Business Administration, I discovered that its idea of a small business included businesses of a size that I defined as pretty damned large. The SBA seemed to view my business as sub-atomic and the Agency did not have an electron microscope nor any desire to borrow one for a look-see. It seemed that I was asking for too little money (a risk I could have repaid if the loan did not provide the return on investment I expected). I located funding elsewhere, so I suppose it could be argued that the “system” worked: I did not “need” an SBA loan.
Second, I don’t know how the percentages-breakdown of small businesses looks (however they are defined) when comparing sole proprietorships with partnerships and the various forms of incorporations. The complexities and cash flows of a sole-proprietor handyman who has a truck and some tools is very different from a plumber who has a place of business (shop/warehouse), three trucks, six full-time employees and accounts at several supply houses.
In my experiential observations, a sole-proprietor whose cash flow and/or employee count increases usually transforms his sole-proprietorship into an incorporated umbrella for a number of reasons which I won’t go into here. Generally, a sole-proprietorship translates cash flow into profits (personal income) whereas cash flow in the various incorporated structures can be redirected (actually or on paper) so that some (or most) of it doesn’t fall into the personal income or profit columns.
All of this to say that providing business growth incentives via governmental decree could be tagged to a number of different accounting columns other than personal income and/or reported profits. A few incentives already exist. If a business has a decent cash flow and the principals are consistently drawing a living wage/salary, money can (and usually should) be diverted into adding, replacing and upgrading equipment that, in effect, will be purchased by the governmental tax system. I am often amazed when a business appears to be paying taxes on income/profits that could have replaced a worn-out machine instead. If you don’t get to keep the money in either case, you have to be a fool not to get a piece of new equipment out of the deal.
If we limit the discussion to incentives designed to create new “Average Joe” entrepreneurial enterprises, I don’t think that the current cost of taxes prevents new entrepreneurial efforts. First, many Average Joe’s don’t contemplate creating a new business and a career in running a business. Second, for those who do, the task of learning all of the run-of-the-mill accounting and employee and safety/environmental regulations can be daunting. An Average Joe can be an expert in the field of his business idea and know absolutely nothing about starting and complying with the purely “business running” aspect of it.
As a result, the Average Joe sees the government’s requirements for creating/operating a new business as the problem that stifles new business efforts. It’s obvious to the rest of us that new businesses cannot be allowed to operate without following a set of rules, but the stifling effect of learning and funding business-operating-rules (in addition to the attention required to build on the original entrepreneurial idea) is undeniable. Damned-near everyone in that position complains about the time and money required by governmental paperwork and rules and regulations and taxes.
Venture capitalists (who are definitely not the Average Joe) understand that a new enterprise begins life in debt to attorneys and accountants before the first machine or employee comes on board, but Venture Capitalists are not playing in the same league with the Average Joe who has a new business idea. One of the first questions that we (society) must answer is whether we want to create growth in Average Joe-driven businesses or Venture Capitalist-driven businesses or both.
I don’t know how to solve any of these problems regardless of whether we are discussing governmental incentives for new (or expanding) small enterprises or new (or expanding) big enterprises. I suspect that tax breaks for profits or income exceeding a stated amount ain’t the solution or, at best, is only a small piece of the solution.
I have another, broad-based, philosophical concern with the notion that our government should provide incentives that, in the end, increase consumerism as the national economic model. An entrepreneurial idea to supply fresh vegetables to a market is one thing while an entrepreneurial idea for a new throwaway Styrofoam product is something else entirely.
Consumerism in recent decades has been driven by consumer debt (happily supplied by the financial industry) that has resulted in a bunch of consumer crap we don’t need fueled by the buying power of cash incomes that consumers don’t have. If ramping-up business ventures with government incentives only serves to re-energize unlimited consumerism, we will be resolving one economic problem (jobs and consumer spending) while exacerbating other economic and societal problems (diverting consumer dollars to financial industry fees and landfills and pollution).
mire:
July 30, 2010 at 10:56 am
…I didn’t think she should be in a “home”
I do wish my grandaughters will feel like that about me one day
—————
[Cue WHAA-whaa trombone sound effect.]
Re:Zeek:
July 30, 2010 at 5:40 am
Linda Ronstadt : mmmm good.
I loved her music back on the ’70′s.
And also her stuff with the Stone Poneys.
Going to go & see : An Evening with Bill Maher
July 31, 2010 8:00 PM at the Genesee Theatre in Waukegan, IL.