It is a breath of fresh air to think about what we "CAN DO" and not sit around pointing fingers at each other like our politicians do. The news is so full of politics and negativity. I would ask you to petition one or all of the major news networks to offer you a platform for programing. That way - more people could see the possible and vote accordingly!
Of course, you're right again. Blight on America's future innovations is our government. Government employees have to justify their existence by making rules for the federal register; which needs to be abolished.
One area you're over looking, food. All of us must eat. US government's control of farmers by giving them hand outs has created a class of welfare.
On your way across country stop by and we'll have a chat about food.
Oh, indeed. I'm a Professional Agronomist, but also just retired afgter half a century of commercial family-scale production ag. I never took a dollar of the USDA subsidies for which I was eligible. Yet in the process I developped a number of eco-friendly farm management techniques which are at last filtering into th mainstream.
For sure, the Farm Bill should be repealed, it is grotesquely flawed. I think we can say that about most subsidized programs in America. Paid not to plant, paid because it didn’t rain, paid because it rained too much, paid because the government deemed you needed money for a particular reason? We have a significant over production problem. This is causing massive land and equipment inflation.
It's not just America. I run a small trekking tour business in Australia. Suddenly, the tours I've been running for 40 years may be "too dangerous". The new paperwork is almost beyond belief.
The problem is not regulation, it is over-regulation. Regulation (let's call it "Management") is good when done well. If you don't believe in that, I have about 1000 drones that will hang around your home playing disco music and selling you penis-lengthening and weight-loss pills.
Seriously: I like your cool innovation stuff, even when it gets a little loopy. But you generally fail to consider the *total solution*. E.g. re nuclear, what is the specific plan or technology for managing the waste.
That may an answer to a problem that isn't as looming as it seems. The high level waste volume is small (I believe all the nuclear waste for the last 70 years fits on a football field about 50 ft high.) The easy solution is to reopen Yucca Mountain, which was ready for deliveries when it was shut down due to the same kind of paranoia that afflicted the whole industry.
I hope it is that simple! My point to the RO-guys who run this blog is that you don't have a solution until you have designed a complete implementation/management plan. 0-regulation is synonymous with "stick your head in the sand". The RO guys have a bad habit of cheerleading the front-end and hollering to just ignore the back-end.
We got rid of airline regulation in 1978. Are we better off?? Very doubtful at best. It was supposed to provide more competition, route options, cost savings, etc. Some of that worked well for a time, until the big players figured out the system. You regularly used to be able to jump on a plane on the east coast and fly non-stop to SF, LA. East to West. even with slower planes you could almost arrive at the same time you took off. The hub system, most airlines have adopted, pretty much does away with direct flights to almost anywhere, except in the middle of the night.
Second, The Concord was great, but the noise was prohibitive. If, in fact we can match that speed with no booms. Go for it. I doubt very seriously you would have put up with the noise.
As and owner of small businesses in OR/USA the blight is an every day reality. And on the ground it is not getting better. Persistence, patience and sufficient resilience (financial, mental and physical) keep me going. And a deep desire to see our people (employees, customers and suppliers) succeed in an overregulated world run by bureaucrats with little to no knowledge of - or desire to understand freedom, opportunity and self-reliance and how we all benefit from that. They view the government as an end in of itself, and the arbiter of everything. However I believe is worth continuing to work for a better world and more freedom and personal responsibility. I truly hope we are in a 'new golden age' of freedom and opportunity - for my children's and grandchildren's sakes.
How about Connecticut's governor imposing a 20%+ extra charge on electricity bills to fund a program to pay for so called hardship customers electric needs. This is solely a 'HIDDEN TAX" imposed by a lame duck Governor strictly for garnering more votes from folks who want more free stuff. By being truthful with the Connecticut citizenry, and calling the give away for what it is: taxation without representation, Connecticut contributes to the blight, and overcharges an already high electricity cost blighted American Northeast region. Bring on the additional needed energy pipelines and SMR Nuclear reactors asap.
For sure, we're our own worst enemies on regulations strangling us. I love the optimism on most the innovative ideas for drones except home delivery. First, isn't Amazon already being more efficient with it's current system? Second, I don't want to see drones constantly crisscrossing the skies, that's just adding an annoying element to neighborhoods where we go home to get away from the busy lifestyle. The new jets would be great for long haul flights but I still think physics will be a limiting factor on how affordable they are.
You wrote recently about someone who claims they can provide sufficient water to turn parts of my state, AZ, green by seeding the clouds. Sounded great until I read the next day that 16 states have laws that prohibit that activity. In fact, FL even has a law that prohibits vehicles (airplanes, drones, etc.) with capability from even entering FL airspace. That's an example of the regulatory blight.
I was not aware AI 'collapsed in the EU am most curious shall try to learn more Concerned about AI going very wrong taking all slow easy perhaps not all bad
The EPA under Carter required a full re-registration process for all pesticides, including "botanicals" [ground up plants of several species]. In our case it was Ryania, the finely ground stems of a tropical shrub, which had been studied extensively in the '40s and '50s and was renowned for its toxicity against certain very troublesome pests, whilst being harmless to bees and other beneficials.
It had been in use, without problems for over 30 years, but we had to treat it as though it were a brand new *chemical* pesticide. EPA would not let us begin the re-registration process -- or even tell us what that was -- until we had bought label rights for every previous formulation. That cost us $750 K in 1980 money, so about 3 million today.
The process was appropriate for any *new* chemical formulation, but not for a highly eco-sensitive material with a generation of use history. For example, no previous studies, field or lab, were allowed in the process. We were looking at a minimum of 5 to 7 years and at least 60 million bucks in today's money in order to convince EPA technocrats that the product would not destroy the world.
For ground up *twigs* from a shrub which grows wild all over Amazonia and the southern Caribbean. The Blight removed one of the most eco-friendly product ever from the market, all in the name of "environmental protection". That was 40 years ago, and it only got worse.
I don't know why the EPA can't be reasonable when confronted with scenarios like this. I ran into the same type of problems when I worked for an environmental reporting company...the Feds just don't understand that they need to bend a little instead of this 100 percent black and white puritan thinking.
To add that the SRS is 31 sq miles the size of greater WDC, that inside the beltway ( US 495 ) is here in the SE of the USA as the former USSR 1950's missiles could not reach us here ; )
We are an over lawyered society doomed to fall hopelessly behind if we don't find a way to push back against it
It is a breath of fresh air to think about what we "CAN DO" and not sit around pointing fingers at each other like our politicians do. The news is so full of politics and negativity. I would ask you to petition one or all of the major news networks to offer you a platform for programing. That way - more people could see the possible and vote accordingly!
Of course, you're right again. Blight on America's future innovations is our government. Government employees have to justify their existence by making rules for the federal register; which needs to be abolished.
One area you're over looking, food. All of us must eat. US government's control of farmers by giving them hand outs has created a class of welfare.
On your way across country stop by and we'll have a chat about food.
Oh, indeed. I'm a Professional Agronomist, but also just retired afgter half a century of commercial family-scale production ag. I never took a dollar of the USDA subsidies for which I was eligible. Yet in the process I developped a number of eco-friendly farm management techniques which are at last filtering into th mainstream.
For sure, the Farm Bill should be repealed, it is grotesquely flawed. I think we can say that about most subsidized programs in America. Paid not to plant, paid because it didn’t rain, paid because it rained too much, paid because the government deemed you needed money for a particular reason? We have a significant over production problem. This is causing massive land and equipment inflation.
It's not just America. I run a small trekking tour business in Australia. Suddenly, the tours I've been running for 40 years may be "too dangerous". The new paperwork is almost beyond belief.
Thank you for being Blight Fighters!
The problem is not regulation, it is over-regulation. Regulation (let's call it "Management") is good when done well. If you don't believe in that, I have about 1000 drones that will hang around your home playing disco music and selling you penis-lengthening and weight-loss pills.
Seriously: I like your cool innovation stuff, even when it gets a little loopy. But you generally fail to consider the *total solution*. E.g. re nuclear, what is the specific plan or technology for managing the waste.
That may an answer to a problem that isn't as looming as it seems. The high level waste volume is small (I believe all the nuclear waste for the last 70 years fits on a football field about 50 ft high.) The easy solution is to reopen Yucca Mountain, which was ready for deliveries when it was shut down due to the same kind of paranoia that afflicted the whole industry.
I hope it is that simple! My point to the RO-guys who run this blog is that you don't have a solution until you have designed a complete implementation/management plan. 0-regulation is synonymous with "stick your head in the sand". The RO guys have a bad habit of cheerleading the front-end and hollering to just ignore the back-end.
We got rid of airline regulation in 1978. Are we better off?? Very doubtful at best. It was supposed to provide more competition, route options, cost savings, etc. Some of that worked well for a time, until the big players figured out the system. You regularly used to be able to jump on a plane on the east coast and fly non-stop to SF, LA. East to West. even with slower planes you could almost arrive at the same time you took off. The hub system, most airlines have adopted, pretty much does away with direct flights to almost anywhere, except in the middle of the night.
Second, The Concord was great, but the noise was prohibitive. If, in fact we can match that speed with no booms. Go for it. I doubt very seriously you would have put up with the noise.
As and owner of small businesses in OR/USA the blight is an every day reality. And on the ground it is not getting better. Persistence, patience and sufficient resilience (financial, mental and physical) keep me going. And a deep desire to see our people (employees, customers and suppliers) succeed in an overregulated world run by bureaucrats with little to no knowledge of - or desire to understand freedom, opportunity and self-reliance and how we all benefit from that. They view the government as an end in of itself, and the arbiter of everything. However I believe is worth continuing to work for a better world and more freedom and personal responsibility. I truly hope we are in a 'new golden age' of freedom and opportunity - for my children's and grandchildren's sakes.
How about Connecticut's governor imposing a 20%+ extra charge on electricity bills to fund a program to pay for so called hardship customers electric needs. This is solely a 'HIDDEN TAX" imposed by a lame duck Governor strictly for garnering more votes from folks who want more free stuff. By being truthful with the Connecticut citizenry, and calling the give away for what it is: taxation without representation, Connecticut contributes to the blight, and overcharges an already high electricity cost blighted American Northeast region. Bring on the additional needed energy pipelines and SMR Nuclear reactors asap.
For sure, we're our own worst enemies on regulations strangling us. I love the optimism on most the innovative ideas for drones except home delivery. First, isn't Amazon already being more efficient with it's current system? Second, I don't want to see drones constantly crisscrossing the skies, that's just adding an annoying element to neighborhoods where we go home to get away from the busy lifestyle. The new jets would be great for long haul flights but I still think physics will be a limiting factor on how affordable they are.
agreed! At some point soon I’m thinking the money problem will show itself?
I can do all things through God who gives me strength! Paul to the Phillipians as an original rational optimist!
You wrote recently about someone who claims they can provide sufficient water to turn parts of my state, AZ, green by seeding the clouds. Sounded great until I read the next day that 16 states have laws that prohibit that activity. In fact, FL even has a law that prohibits vehicles (airplanes, drones, etc.) with capability from even entering FL airspace. That's an example of the regulatory blight.
That is one of the reasons we left the EU, overbearing regulations.
Look at the collapse of AI in the EU
I was not aware AI 'collapsed in the EU am most curious shall try to learn more Concerned about AI going very wrong taking all slow easy perhaps not all bad
The number one obstacle to human progress is the bureaucratic impulse. Great article Stephen.
The EPA under Carter required a full re-registration process for all pesticides, including "botanicals" [ground up plants of several species]. In our case it was Ryania, the finely ground stems of a tropical shrub, which had been studied extensively in the '40s and '50s and was renowned for its toxicity against certain very troublesome pests, whilst being harmless to bees and other beneficials.
It had been in use, without problems for over 30 years, but we had to treat it as though it were a brand new *chemical* pesticide. EPA would not let us begin the re-registration process -- or even tell us what that was -- until we had bought label rights for every previous formulation. That cost us $750 K in 1980 money, so about 3 million today.
The process was appropriate for any *new* chemical formulation, but not for a highly eco-sensitive material with a generation of use history. For example, no previous studies, field or lab, were allowed in the process. We were looking at a minimum of 5 to 7 years and at least 60 million bucks in today's money in order to convince EPA technocrats that the product would not destroy the world.
For ground up *twigs* from a shrub which grows wild all over Amazonia and the southern Caribbean. The Blight removed one of the most eco-friendly product ever from the market, all in the name of "environmental protection". That was 40 years ago, and it only got worse.
most interesting
I don't know why the EPA can't be reasonable when confronted with scenarios like this. I ran into the same type of problems when I worked for an environmental reporting company...the Feds just don't understand that they need to bend a little instead of this 100 percent black and white puritan thinking.
To add that the SRS is 31 sq miles the size of greater WDC, that inside the beltway ( US 495 ) is here in the SE of the USA as the former USSR 1950's missiles could not reach us here ; )