[Vision2020] Aug. 10, 2011 Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Schweitzer said lowering theminimumwage is a good idea

Thu Aug 11 08:18:02 PDT 2011

You realize that the _entire_ market for the products which Dr.
Schweitzer sells is the result of federal regulation, right? His
products are designed to meet FERC reliability standards for
electrical transmission.

-- ACS

On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Gary Crabtree <jampot at roadrunner.com> wrote:
> You are right, of course. The last thing our country needs is congressmen
> who know how to meet a delivery date and a payroll. I am sure we would do
> best to stick with brainless drones such as Murray who at no point in theirs
> life have created anything of value. America will surely be elevated from
> its current economic woes by fools who believe that wealth and job
> creation is the exclusive domain of those in Washington. How silly of me to
> think that a gentleman who has the ability to conceive, create, and bring to
> market a useful product with no help from our simpering nanny state might be
> able to bring that same increasingly novel approach to governance.
>
> g
> From: Art Deco
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 8:43 PM
> To: Moscow Vision 2020
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Aug. 10,2011 Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Schweitzer
> said lowering theminimumwage is a good idea
> There is little doubt that Schweitzer to this point has been a very
> successful entrepreneur.  And in doing so he has treated his employees
> well.  So far he has evaded a lot of serious competition because of the the
> singular nature of his business and his adroit management.
>
> It is not accurate to say that he does not "whine."  The DN article contain
> whines about regulation, for example.
>
> I'd be the last to defend all regulations.  Some are stupid, ill-designed,
> and counterproductive.  But there are generally good reasons for
> well-designed regulations in may areas.  What these areas are and how they
> are to be regulated depends on knowledge and values, the latter an area
> where consensus is often hard to forge.
>
> A mistake commonly made in some businesses is to promote the best worker
> into a supervisory position.  Often this does not work.  The skills needed
> to be an expert machinist, for example, are very different from the skills
> needed to be an able supervisor.
>
> While Schweitzer is an excellent entrepreneur, that set of skills is
> different from being an able legislator.  Government is much more
> complex than most medium sized companies, and it deals within frameworks of
> complex organizations, though sometimes corrupt, idiotic, and ineffective,
> never-the-less take a great deal of understanding to even know where to
> start to make change, and know how to make change against a tide of years of
> habit and resistance.
>
> Being the king of the company whose word is law is different from being a
> cog in a legislative/political machine where one's ideas and words carry
> much less weight.
>
> Further, being an effective business person sometimes narrows perspective
> and makes understanding different aspects of issues and values difficult.
>
> Schweitzer may make an able legislator.  I don't know.  But his success as a
> business person is no guarantee that he will.  But perhaps if he set his
> sights on the state legislature first so he can learn and can show what he
> can do, then Washington voters would have a better feel for his
> political/legislative ability.
>
> w.
> From: Gary Crabtree
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 6:55 PM
> To: Ted Moffett ; Moscow Vision 2020
> Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Aug. 10,2011 Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Schweitzer
> said lowering theminimum wage is a good idea
> I'd love to see Mr. Schweitzer take a run at Patty (the menace) Murray's
> senate seat in 2016. Washington has a desperate need for a few clear
> thinking individuals who know how the real world actually works. Someone who
> has created innovative products and jobs without having to whine to the
> government for a handout. Accomplishments of which Murray couldn't even
> conceive.
>
> g
>
> P.S. "meters of sea level rise?" When, by 4012/4042? Nothing like a little
> sensationalism to try and rile the monkeys
> From: Ted Moffett
> Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:39 PM
> To: Moscow Vision 2020
> Subject: [Vision2020] Aug. 10, 2011 Moscow-Pullman Daily News: Schweitzer
> said lowering the minimum wage is a good idea
>
> Of course Schweitzer provides jobs and an economic boost to the Palouse, and
> gives back to the community, as evidenced by the United Way support:
> http://www.moscowlatahuw.org/docs/annual%20report%202010final.pdf
>
> But lowering the minimum wage is a good idea?  Since the great recession
> an expanding percentage of the US work force is defined as working poor
> ( http://www.workingpoorfamilies.org/pdfs/policybrief-winter2011.pdf ), and
> would lowering the minimum wage make this situation worse?  Maybe he was
> misquoted.
>
> Also, Schweitzer comments that "you can't fool the laws of physics even for
> an instant" regarding fuel economy for vehicles.  Yet, in his critical
> comments on the costs of the EPA regulation of CO2 emissions, does he imply
> we should ignore the laws of physics regarding the radiative forcing of
> human sourced atmospheric CO2 emissions raising Earth's temperature into the
> range of "dangerous anthropogenic interference," to quote from a Proceedings
> of of the National Academy of Sciences article I recommend everyone
> read: http://www.pnas.org/content/106/49/20616.full  August 31, 2009:
>  "Reducing abrupt climate change risk using the Montreal Protocol and other
> regulatory actions to complement cuts in CO2 emissions" A short quote from
> the article: The potential consequences associated with these tipping points
> may be largely irreversible and unmanageable (10) and include widespread
> loss of biodiversity, meters of sea level rise, and famine, which could lead
> to political instability (9, 11). In a worst-case scenario, climate change
> could produce runaway feedbacks, such as methane release from permafrost
> (12).
> -----------------------------------------------------------
>
> Schweitzer: Too much regulation can cause harm
>
> http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/1623287-schweitzer-too-much-regulation-can-cause-harm
>
> Wed August 10, 2011 10:02 AM
>
>
> Aug. 10--If lawmakers back off unnecessary regulations, the economy could
> take an upward turn, Ed Schweitzer said Tuesday at a Pullman Chamber of
> Commerce luncheon.
>
> However, he not only offered criticism of government rules, but also
> exhortations to fellow businessmen to believe in America and invest in it,
> as he is doing with major expansion of Pullman-based Schweitzer Engineering
> Laboratories.
>
> "Duke Energy (DUK) reported that the carbon dioxide limits that the
> Environmental Protection Agency put into regulation is going to cost them $2
> billion to $5 billion dollars," Schweitzer said. "Just for one utility of
> the United States providing people electricity. Who's going to pay that?
> Well, who here plugs something in?"
>
> Schweitzer, founder and president of SEL, said regulations for some
> gas-efficient cars can also make a negative impact.
>
> "It sounds good to make cars that use less gas, but you can't fool the laws
> of physics even for an instant, and you can only fool the laws of economics
> for a short time," he said. "As you know we're pushing a ... 56-mile a
> gallon limit. ... There's estimates that that will kill 200,000 jobs and
> leave us with cars we don't want."
>
> An important step in fixing the economy, Schweitzer said, is inventing new
> things, taking them to market and competing to serve customers. In addition,
> he said, there should be an elimination of all the government activities
> that "just plain don't work."
>
> "Invent your future," he said. "Make it, do it, sell it, improve it ... and
> once people stop looking at the capitol dome as the top of an ATM machine,
> then we're going to get back on track."
>
> Schweitzer said lowering the minimum wage is a good idea, as well as
> encouraging construction of pending building permits at Pullman City Hall.
>
> SEL itself is moving forward with both construction and production, he said.
> New SEL facilities have been and are being constructed in efforts to expand
> services. A facility in Lewiston will be up and running by Oct. 1 and a
> 90,000 square foot Solution Delivery Center being built in Pullman will be
> finished by mid-November. In addition, a 68,500 square foot SEL facility
> recently was constructed in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for exporting equipment
> to countries all over the world.
>
> "A few months ago we decided we were really going to step on the gas. And
> why?" he asked. "We decided we're going to do it because we think the
> country's going to get it right. We really believe in America."
>
> So far, Schweitzer said, the San Luis Potosi facility has distributed to
> about 30 countries, and over time Pullman has distributed to more than 140
> countries around the world.
>
> "SEL and other people are finding now is a good time to build, and this is
> something we can do right here at home," he said. "We need the space, so
> we're building, and right now construction costs are low. We're doing it at
> about 25 to 30 percent lower than last time we built something ... and it's
> a good time to hire people -- folks want to work."
>
> SEL employs about 2,500 people worldwide, the majority of them on the
> Palouse.
>
> Kelli Hadley can be reached at (208) 882-5561, ext. 234, or by email to
> khadley at dnews.com.
>
> ___
>
> To see more of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News or to subscribe to the
> newspaper, go to http://www.dnews.com.
>
> Copyright (c) 2011, Moscow-Pullman Daily News, Moscow, Idaho
>
> Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
>
> For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune
> Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com, e-mail
> services at mctinfoservices.com, or call 866-280-5210 (outside the United
> States, call +1 312-222-4544)
>
> ------------------------------------------
>
> Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
>
> ________________________________
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
> ________________________________
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
> ________________________________
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>                http://www.fsr.net
>           mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>
> =======================================================
>  List services made available by First Step Internet,
>  serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
>               http://www.fsr.net
>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
> =======================================================
>