Month: February 2004

“Off-shoring” Manifesto/Rant: Sixteen Hard Truths

9. Big companies do not create jobs, and historically have not. (Big companies are not “built to last;” they almost inexorably are “built to decline.”)
10. Job creation is entrepreneurially led, especially by a small number of “start-ups” that become growth companies (Microsoft, Amgen et al.); hence entrepreneurial incentives including low capital gains taxes, high R&D supports are a top priority.
11. Primary and secondary education must be reformed, in particular to underscore creativity and innovation — the mainstays of high-value added products and services. Children should be nurtured on risk-taking, with a low expectation of corporate cosseting.
12. Research universities must be vigorously supported.
15. Worker benefits (health care, re-training credits, pensions) should be portable, to induce rather than impede labor mobility.

So where were the re-training programs, entrepreneurial, and research supportive efforts in the tax cuts in the past years? Seems that education is one of the more severly cut areas of federal and state budget cuts in the past 2-3 years.

“Off-shoring” Manifesto/Rant: Sixteen Hard Truths

9. Big companies do not create jobs, and historically have not. (Big companies are not “built to last;” they almost inexorably are “built to decline.”)
10. Job creation is entrepreneurially led, especially by a small number of “start-ups” that become growth companies (Microsoft, Amgen et al.); hence entrepreneurial incentives including low capital gains taxes, high R&D supports are a top priority.
11. Primary and secondary education must be reformed, in particular to underscore creativity and innovation — the mainstays of high-value added products and services. Children should be nurtured on risk-taking, with a low expectation of corporate cosseting.
12. Research universities must be vigorously supported.
15. Worker benefits (health care, re-training credits, pensions) should be portable, to induce rather than impede labor mobility.

So where were the re-training programs, entrepreneurial, and research supportive efforts in the tax cuts in the past years? Seems that education is one of the more severly cut areas of federal and state budget cuts in the past 2-3 years.

Patriot Games

The answer to the latter question remains to be seen, I guess. But I think most readers understood what I meant. Since the Clinton Wars of the late ’90s, and especially since the 9/11 attacks, social conservatives – the folks who get their religious doctrine from Pat Robertson and their political doctrine from Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter – have metastasized into something we haven’t seen in this country since the McCarthy era: a large, reasonably well-organized right-wing authoritarian movement, which not only fears and loathes its left-wing opponents, but increasingly regards opposition itself as tantamount to treason.

Patriot Games

The answer to the latter question remains to be seen, I guess. But I think most readers understood what I meant. Since the Clinton Wars of the late ’90s, and especially since the 9/11 attacks, social conservatives – the folks who get their religious doctrine from Pat Robertson and their political doctrine from Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter – have metastasized into something we haven’t seen in this country since the McCarthy era: a large, reasonably well-organized right-wing authoritarian movement, which not only fears and loathes its left-wing opponents, but increasingly regards opposition itself as tantamount to treason.