Software

And, "reality" and "actual" and their ilk -- I'm known to **** an eye and bear in when they are used in far lesser concerns here. What you were talking about may be a coming ugliness that will concern all of us.

In which case, I insist on cold blood. The science of being requires nothing less.

In all other cases I'm being only snotty and troublesome.

Lucky ... only one abuse. It is easy to tack a "really" in front of X ... I mean if X weighs 100 lbs, then really X must way at least 180 and really, really X -- wow, that must weigh something like 375. Who can resist magnifying their argument by that ... and with only one extra word, used twice? Pretty good return on word usage.

In all other cases ... mostly fun, frequently thought-provoking, sometimes catalytic and always cryptic.

Today I had this very discussion with another. He is, as I am, a business owner.

"How you doing?" I asked.

"Picking up a little -- nothing to write home about."

The significance of the conversation was that he and I are members of an exceedingly small minority. Exceedingly small.

Come to think of it, we are outnumbered vastly by employees: CEOs, members of Congress, the Senate, the President, and so forth -- all employees; the lot of them.

They cast their solution in terms of, "jobs". What else can they do? They do jobs. They can be brought on as well as dismissed. Understandable.

The only way my compatriot and I can be dismissed is to kill us, or we dismiss ourselves with less than a wrinkle of the nose.

Come to me and talk about "jobs" and I have no idea what you are talking about.

So, saying to my compatriot, "I have just made you czar with a checkbook of trillions. What are you going to do about the fix we are in?"

His answer, and mine, was surprisingly like yours.

Innovation.

Maybe, I said to him, something like a mother of all X Prizes. A bounty. How to bell the cat.

Our conversation trailed off into how, as new electric vehicles will cost ~ $40,000, he has ordered the parts for an electrified Toyota pickup (old). Tricked out (he has the plant and wherewithal of experience), maybe $7,000, to go 150 miles on a charge.

Like you said...innovation. Neat thing is, you can be anybody to do that.

Jobs? Meh.

I think you distilled the essential ingredient for a fledgling country.

It is like one is focusing on the spigot hoping the flow of water will improve, and the other focused on the bounty of the well. In human terms, it only goes dry from lack of use.

The problem is that those jobs are temporary, unless it is a long term road project.

The stimulous needs to target small business in such a way that companies will hire people long term. The recent bill Congress passed for $30B+ will supposedly give them access to loans and tax credits, but realistically, companies are waiting for the next shoe to drop just like the rest of us.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0**0/42629.html I think, too, that companies are apprehensive about the cost of the new healthcare changes. The Democrats need to explain more to the rest of us how this is saving money and not driving us further into debt. I want to know, too, how its going to affect me personally, now that it is law.

Its all about FUD. We all took such a devastating financial ****, no one is particularly in the mood for risk-taking. Personally, I'm saving like never before because I don't know when my job might be over.

That lack of security certainly doesn't put me in the spending mood. I know I'm not alone in that philosophy and so the vicious cycle continues.

The latest $30+B spending bill is a real shot in the arm for small business, but if it doesn't spur long-term growth, uh-oh. That means we have even deeper problems and now we're in even deeper debt.

The funny thing is, I think a silver lining to the Great Recession has surfaced. People are innovating. They're learning to live with less. They're buying less and doing more with less. Living smaller, smarter and cheaper. Less is more. Its really the birth of innovation again in our country again, I think, out of necessity.

That mindset will rebuild the economy of the future. Its a global market, but we can compete. Its going to be a long road back though.

AV

comes down to one's political / economic philosophies, but I only see stimulus projects, as playing a kind of pump-priming role.

Whether it is enough or not will be (has been) debated, but I think the design is that with increased public-sector jobs, things will begin to thaw, more consumer spending, more business spending, more hiring ... leading to more confidence (less FUD). Then, as the public jobs are diminishing, the private sector has righted itself and taking up the slack. Anything this coarse-grained is bound to be imprecise, but it beats the alternatives of doing nothing to prime the pump, or going too far the other direction and over-committing.

The main point I wanted to make is that the government does not have to create "make-work" projects to do this. There already is plenty of need for jobs for the public good ... roads, bridges, grids, etc ... not to mention DARPA-like commissioning of advanced technologies to solve our 21st century (peace-time) problems.

Regarding the brief comment about health care, I would much rather have seen them tackle (understand) the reasons health care costs in our country is so huge compared to others, independent of national plans and address that issue. The cost of health care hurts both individuals and commerce regardless of public and private options.