Miscellaneous notes (updated) Reposted

Note:

This is reposted because of the need to combat the "Tiberius Syndrome".  I coined the term myself, which is a term which describes what happens when a man of power and control acts in his own interest at the expense of everyone else.  Specifically, it refers to the case of the man who discovered a way to mine aluminum, which was considered a precious metal back then, and brought that discovery to the Roman Emperor Tiberius.  Tiberius was impressed, but rather than rewarding the man, he had the man beheaded.

Captain of industry and of the nation do not behead people yet, but that could be in our future if we don't change our course.  We may be actively preventing wealth creation.  This is the Tiberius Syndrome.  As Rome eventually decayed and fell into ruin, so will we.

The original post follows:  [ it's just a bunch of notes from which I derived the above ] [ Also, the links aren't there, too much trouble to add them all in.]

This is a general outline of a set of ideas to note for future posts

Zero Growth v Economic growth
Water and energy are the basis for economic prosperity
The Emperor Tiberius of the old Roman Empire and how we can repeat his mistake if we really try
Diamandis and the X Prizes
Why the Soviet Union fell: "US President Reagan also actively hindered the Soviet Union's ability to sell natural gas to Europe whilst simultaneously actively working to keep gas prices low, which kept the price of Soviet oil low and further starved the Soviet Union of foreign capital."
How Romney is like Tiberius and how Gingrich is like Diamandis
"Job Growth" v Economic growth
Why higher taxes are not the answer: Economic growth means that the economy is not a zero sum game.
Why "spreading the wealth" will insure poverty-- In short, if you destroy incentive, you also destroy wealth creation.
Why the rich have too much influence and why that is bad--- Quote from Roger Ebert follows. I'm using it because I am of the opinion that Michael Moore said it himself. The article that the quote comes from is about Michael Moore.
Ebert: Yeah, they all think they're going to leave a big estate, and they love Bush's theories because they all think they're going to get rich someday. But the fact is, most people are not going to be rich someday.
Comment upon this quote: According to Diamandis, even the poor are richer than the very rich of ancient times. Progress is not automatic. It must come from incentives. If you take that away, progress will end. Bread and circuses didn't work for Rome, they won't work now.

I'll stop here for now. Don't know when I'll get back to these ideas, but at least they are out there. Food for thought for those who think.