harkins@sri-unix (12/07/82)
re: "primary motivation" (greed or not); i'd suggest you have a look at the cornerstone: Adam Smith's ...Wealth of Nations; call it what you like, self interest is a normal part of our makeup re: 55 mph and traffic death; i feel rather strongly that the problem is not one of speed, though that may well be a correlate; the problem is lousy drivers at any speed; i have long thought that driver's ed programs should have as an integral aspect an intense experience on a "skidpad"; knowing how to handle a skid (and let's face it, a skid is what you have whenever you lose control for whatever reason) is partly intellectual but mostly a matter of getting your reflexes trained to do the right thing "instinctively"; the only way to do that is to do it!! try to find a local sports car club that runs gymkhana or autocross events and take your street car out and flog it to find out what happens when you go sideways; i used to do these things regularly and have never seen anything like a serious accident since speeds are usually kept low and the whole thing is a race against a clock only (a twisty course laid out on a shopping center parking lot with orange pylons typically), so all you have to lose is "face"; try it... ernie harkins
zrm (12/15/82)
The taxing of organisations, like corporations, clubs, societies, etc. is a very inexact science. General Motors gets a lot of benefit from the goverment and should pay for it somehow. Should the investors pay this through a tax on corporate profits? Usage fees that would be part of operating costs? Should companies that are losing money pay these usage fees too? Are taxes on profits in effect subsidising badly run companies? A tax on capital gains? That "The Nation" should feel that faceless corporations should pay more is not at all surprising. If you want to read a rag that very clearly echoes old fashioned Soviet capitalist-bashing retoric, pick up a copy of "The Nation". Its a whole lot cheaper than a shortwave set for listening to Radio Hanoi, and almost as much fun. The fact is that even though corporations pay less now than they used to, the may still be paying too much. And it is certain that the wrong corporations are paying. Bailing out Chrysler, guarenteeing loans to Mexico and Comecon countries, paying rich farmers and agribusiness companies not to grow tobacco & etc. is draining money away from companies that actually produce goods that make us materially richer. The subsidisation of bad banking practice is particularly dangerous in these times. But, since nobody here is a corporation, it would be very easy to let Them pay for Everything. Particularly since They are Running Dog Opressors of the Working People. On the other hand, if we all felt the pinch of goverment spending directly as a chunk out of our income, we'd all be a lot more concerned about how *our* (We the people's) money is being pissed away. Cheers, Zig P.S. If you want to see something really strange, that is Lester Thurow defending a Reagan policy, pick up this week's Newsweek.