You need to do your home work a little better. Come out into the real world and realize we are in big trouble.
You need to raise your eyes above the Government BS and start thinking for your self. the real world is out there and it's hurting. Yet you think we can give up our expensive toys and every thing will be OK.
I never said the farmers were the ones to give up their toys. The toys are with those who should be investing in their own neighborhoods and businesses. There's piles of people in cities driving unnecessary "luxury" cars. Unfortunately most were paid for with credit. Look for the old guy with a beat up Ford F-150 and calluses on his hands and you might find he has a million bucks to invest. Or not. But my point was that there's plenty of folks who have money. They're not building algae farms because they've done the math. They can't make back their investment before they die.
I also don't believe the government BS which is exactly why I find your cry that "Government should save us" so silly. Government workers outnumber manufacturing workers in the U.S. now, two to one. So, I'm pretty sure "more government" isn't the answer -- judging by where we're at today.
Government was regulating the mortgage loan banks, in fact, guaranteeing their loans through Fannie and Freddie which are still both yet to be "un-wound". Government was "regulating" Goldman Sachs while they sold derivatives. Government convinced a nation that 1/4 million dollar houses or higher, financed over 30 years, was "affordable housing for all". Government was in charge of regulating AIG who was insuring it all.
We've been in big trouble my whole life. The "consumer" nation must consume or die. The "consumer" nation had no idea how to save for a rainy day and spends both nationally and individually on credit, and has no clue the effects of compound interest.
We need to be a "maker" nation again and it won't happen until things get bad enough folks realize government doesn't make anything and politicians living off their dime aren't going to save them.
If you don't believe there are a) folks smart enough to start the algae thing without government assistance, and b) who have the money to do so tomorrow -- if the numbers worked for it -- you're crazy. It could be started up tomorrow, if it made any fiscal sense.
As a nation, our lifestyle is adjusting to match what we produce, which is mostly plastic trash and video games. People are more interested in Farmville than real farming.
The electronics to run the video games are made somewhere else. The plastic trash was manufactured somewhere else. We want our middle class to be able to afford expensive import "luxury" automobiles that are fussy and no better than what Detroit produced as they were dying for customers. Cessna is making their new airplanes in Mexico and China. We still innovate but that was only a portion of our working class even back in the hey-day. We tell kids that learning a trade is "second-best" to getting an education -- where the most they aspire to is being a middle-manager with no real authority and certainly no leadership skills -- for the rest of their lives. Plumbers and electricians who work hard are starting to pull down six figure salaries after paying their dues, time-wise. Landscapers aren't doing too bad either. Trades are bouncing back. Would I support a government that actually budgeted to do proper upkeep on things like roads and bridges with real planning who didn't tell kids they have to have a college degree to make a living, and instead set up trade schools in road and bridge building? You only need so many engineers for those projects. Fire up the government work camps and build some bridges. AFTER you do that, you can then have a government backed student loan or mortgage. Make the government subsidies something you earn. I'm cool with that. I took the hard road and worked as a busboy, waiter, mail sorter, airplane baggage loader, phone operator, and all sorts of menial jobs to avoid school debt. I never finished college either. My chance to go to work as a field tech came up and I didn't ignore it. I put supporting myself and my family over my desires to finish my Aviation degree. I think it came out better for me in the end.
Lamenting that we're going broke buying things we don't need from foreign manufacturers is kinda silly, of course we are! Common sense. How many decades ago was the last time you heard of anyone paying for their first house with cash? How bad does our society treat folks who live in mobile homes (which are quite affordable and a decent roof over your head -- I've had lots of family live in mobile home parks...). We call our hardest workers, "Trailer trash." We have a crisis in this country we haven't recognized yet, it's one of disrespect for anyone who works for an honest wage with their hands. I realize this.
I grew up with a farmer. A Great Depression farmer. He passed away last year. He took vacation once a year, with cash in his pocket, and told my dad and grandma that they could do anything they wanted to do, but when the cash was gone, they were going home. Meals were prepared at home out of mostly staples, and no one went hungry, but eating out was a social/special treat for Sunday nights when it was affordable. Potatoes are filling and pretty good for you. They're a few bucks for ten pounds of 'em. Chicken dinners were followed by making stock/broth out of the carcass and yummy chicken noodle soup was not far behind on the menu in the next week or so. Baseball was imagined and listened to on an AM radio right up until his death, never a 40" flat-screen TV. Things worth doing were things like going flying on the weekend. You worked all week to pay for that privilege. In fact, his very first question any time you said you wanted to do something was, "Okay you can. How are you going to pay for it?" College loans were avoided if at all possible, and payments started with the three jobs you held while you were in school, taking classes. Canning and pickling weren't quaint pastimes, they were a way to preserve and store some of the treats you grew in your backyard garden for winter. And yes, you grew a garden. Cash in your pocket was something that stayed in your pocket to pay for those things you said you wanted to do.
Look I'm not saying these folks aren't hurting. They are. We all need to help when we can.
I'm not heartless. I've taken people into my home. They were required to do the chores our way, share their financial situation with us, and let us at least attempt to show them how to budget. I've directly supported folks for months at a time who were clueless about work ethic and were still in bed at 11 AM when they didn't have a job. No amount of threats or cajoling worked. It was like raising a teenager.
There really are people out there who "don't get it", badly. I had to pay for the moving truck to get one out of my house after eight months when he forgot to figure out how the stuff would magically be whisked to his new apartment. Less than a year later, he was fired for sleeping at his desk. Now he's thinking he'll be evicted and homeless.
Do you go back in after the guy who jumped knowingly into the deep end twice? When and how does he learn that you don't blow a good job by staying up all night on the Internet in a job market this bad? He's older than I am! You have to draw a line somewhere.
I feel for the farmers, I really do. But if there's nothing being grown there that I want, I don't think my money (directly or in the form of government subsidies) should go there. Grow something I want, I'll buy three. Just 'cause I know they're hurting. Or raise the prices so they can fill their gas tanks. I'll have to pay more for whatever it is that they farmed. Fine by me.
I took a job at a company that's trying to compete with call center overseas outsourcing head-on. They're creating jobs. I buy my groceries and somewhere, someone planted and grew the stuff to make those and raised the animals for slaughter. I got a new job 3.8 miles from home to lower my need for fuel to get there. I invest in or purchase from local businesses when I can. I save up and buy a few toys a year. When the cars get really old I buy solid used ones.
At one time I was $30K in credit card debt. I know how this broken "consumer" mindset works. I got off the treadmill. I can't really help it much if the rest of the Country won't follow suit and they've voted in their "saviors" (both Parties play that game, don't worry I'm not playing favorites here) who promise if they keep giving them their money, they'll magically create jobs.
I watch politicians make promises and think, "Yeah, and unicorns will fly out of my butt too." Until the rest of the Country figures that out... We're pretty screwed. I rolled my eyes when that Senator went to Wichita and spoke to the aviation companies and told them he was their savior. He hasn't produced a single aviation job in his life and never will. If we didn't send him and the rest of government 40% of what we make, you think we might buy new Cessnas with that money and voila... Jobs? Duh.
Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh. Duh.
I'm dumping as much money into this economy as a normal middle-class Joe with a normal job should. I'm not buying much on credit, and I'm not putting the farmers out of business up there. Someone else is doing that. Go find 'em. They're probably playing a round of golf with one of their government buddies.
I'm definitely not the guy who's taxes should be raised, to pay for someone else's algae dreams, through that same utterly corrupt government -- I know that! I'll happily invest in it if someone can show ROI numbers that work, though. If you can get your message out to a million of "me" and we're all convinced you could cover costs and produce cheaper fuel that everyone could use, you'd easily have the Capital to start the business. Crunch the numbers, let's see 'em.
Or as the old farmer used to say, whenever I had a new job... "Get out your calculator." That meant figuring out transportation costs to get me to/from the new job, expected wages after taxes, and time spent working and going to and from (overhead). He made us write it down. It didn't have to be fancy, but it had to be written. There had to be a plan. The plan could change, but you had to know up-front if it was a winner or a loser going in. He'd ask pointed questions like, "What happens if your car breaks down?" If the entire plan worked and you truthfully said, "I doubt I could afford a new starter or alternator right now." He'd say he'd back you up but you'd better be finding another job to reach self-sufficiency.
So if you're serious about this algae thing, show us your plan that doesn't include free land. There are sane fiscal responsible people willing to listen but it's not their job to do the legwork. Having the government back up something solid is fine. The government is us. We want to see the business plan. Fair enough?
