Re.         Meg Whitman on Environmental Regulation, Thursday September 17

                & Thomas Friedman, Applied Builds Solar Overseas

 

It’s too bad Meg Whitman didn’t read Tom Friedman’s column before she wrote hers.  Of course I’m making the assumption that she is not a pure dogmatist, even though a lot of her column did sound like the old republican cry “if we just leave business alone, the market will fix everything”. 

 

Whether she is a purveyor of that dogma or not, the stark contrast between these two columns was remarkable.  She argued that because of onerous environmental regulation, jobs were being lost.  Tom Friedman reported on his visit to Applied Materials, the worlds’ largest supplier of semiconductor equipment. 

 

Applied Materials has recently sold equipment for 14 new solar panel factories, none in the U.S. 

 

I think it’s time to move on from the old, worn out ‘small government’ chant.  Government is supposed to be our collective representative of the will of the people, and those solar factories providing jobs and cutting Co2 in all those other countries are there because their citizens made choices.  That’s not government regulation stifling jobs, it’s just smart decision making.

 

George Martin

 

 

From george

If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.
  - Abraham Lincoln