Time for gasolin summer mix yet?

Time to make ready the pitchforks and torches...

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We could all get electric cars, then recharge them by plugging into an already overtaxed distribution system that is fed by coal burning generation facilities.

well, i have an idea. it's crazytalk, but let's face it - the system we have now isn't working. not for any but a small cabale at any rate.

Increase their pay. increase their pay a lot - to something like $5MM to $10MM a year.

here's the rationale: politicians are in it for the money. plain and simple. but paying someone with a reasonable social skill set, who is dedicated, hard working, and above all ambitious, what we do now, something in the range of only $150k??? there are some supermarket managers earning more than that. no, politicians could get other jobs earning /WAY/ more if they wanted.

so why do they go into politics? for the money! the opportunity to earn money outside their pay, is colossal. that's where the lobbying dollar comes in. and the fact that you can't support two houses, pay for parties and social functions, taxis, travel, restaurants and the d.c. and home state social whirls on that money. absolutely no way. so they /have/ to take the lobbying dollar. and once they take it, they're owned.

if "we the people" pay these people enough, two things will happen:

1. i think it will attract a much better class of politician. people that can earn millions running an organization could now earn millions doing something with bigger picture impact. i think it will attract a much better and more effective class of applicant.
2. given that politicians have proven themselves to be highly responsive to whoever pays them, if /we/ pay them, they'll respond to us. the dollars they're responding to right now aren't coming from us - and that is the #1 problem.

anyway, crazytalk.

your turn.

jim beam wrote in news:QsCdnV1np_c1PTTQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

what's "MM"? do you mean million? one "M" suffices for that.

that was said about teachers,that paying them more would mean kids would be taught better. didn't happen.

Better that we have TERM LIMITS and end the "career" and retirement benefits of Congress. No more "career" politicians. Serve a term,then back to a real non-government job,for at least 10 years. If they don't get established and esconced in power,perks and prestige(and above the law that the rest of us have to live under),they don't get corrupted.

no, "M" means thousand. "MM" means million.

jim beam wrote in news:QsCdnV1np_c1PTTQnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@speakeasy.net:

Money is not at all why people go into politics. There's something a lot more potent than money, and which IS the real reason people get into politics.

Power and control not to mention inflated ego(s).

I really do not know of any bad situation that was remedied by simply pouring money on it...

JT

"Elmo P. Shagnasty" wrote in news:elmop- snipped-for-privacy@62-183-169-81.bb.dnainternet.fi:

Kilo,abbreviated as "K",is generally used for thousand,and "M"(Mega) is used for million. "G"(Giga) is used for billion.

What country are you from? I'm in the US.

that's engineering. unfortunately the financial world has it's own rules [sic] and M is thousand, MM is million, etc.

I'm in the US too, but financial documents and statements use M and MM. Not K.

GrumpyOne wrote in news:iof447$6gg$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me:

Bingo. It's all about power, getting it and keeping it, for as long as possible. Money is very much secondary to power.

My personal experience is that those who run for political office tend to be nosy, meddlesome, egotistical, exhibitionist busybodies; they love to be able to tell other people how to live their lives. Ordering people around is ultimately what drives them, not money.

Next time you have one of those "saving the world" type conversations with somebody, listen carefully. You will find that just about everybody has an idea of how to make a better world, and it /always/ involves some sort of control over others ("I'd force them to..."). Those who go into politics are no different from the average, except that they put into action what others simply talk about.

Power and control bring their own money.

Lobbyists' cash does not go to the politicians, but to their campaigns or their party; politicians legally can't even accept gifts, or free airplane travel. But once in power, politicians can easily vote themselves their jackpot out of tax funds, which they do, in abundance.

Who is John Galt?

A math instructor would think that "M" and "MM" are "fairly recent". He has a math-centric view of the world, and has never worked in the financial world where M and MM have always been thousand and million.

well, i am of the opinion that the financial world should stop playing by their own rules, something fundamentally problematic as we've been seeing lately, and get with the engineering program.

but i don't see that happening. finance people seem to regard percentages and maybe a little retard-grade stats as "challenging" - something that simply fails to garner either the respect or interest of anyone with an engineering/scientific math background sufficient to try to do anything about it.

Yes we import a fair amount of oil. It's a long way from the oil producing regions regions to some markets. It makes more sense to pipe oil south to areas in the US, and import into areas more cheaply supplied from the ocean.

That makes economic sense. As long as Canada is a net exporter then it's more than self-sufficient.

Every profession has and uses its own language--partially for convenience, partially to exclude outsiders.

I believe the Venezuela is way ahead of Saudi Arabia with respect to supplying the US with oil...

JT

the US with oil...

Yup. Proximity is everything when shipping a commodity. Saudi Arabia is a long ways from the USA.

Lynn