Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2012, 08:14:05 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 25, 2012, 05:48:32 PM

Once again, you think you live in the United States of Earth. Any other country could have taken this up by now. Why have they not?

You're an idiot. If you'd even have watched the video you told me to, you'd have known that China is working on LFTR right now, and should have it running by 2015. Additionally, perhaps you skipped the phrase "all the factors that I can see as to why LFTR isn't being built in the private sector in the US right now" while reading my response. Moron.

If I'm an idiot and a moron that doesn't speak well for the rest of humanity. I think that would put someone of your caliber in the "tree-lemur" category of intelligence.

But enough for insults, it's not like if we wanted to come up with pithy and witty insults for each other you'd have any hope of "winning", being someone of your literary caliber. Plus arguing on the Internet like this is plain olde' retarded.

But your reaction here reminds me of the type of rubber stamping that many Leftists do to "back up" their arguments. They scream: "But this is science!". You protest: "But I'm logical!".

Just because part of your response included that remark doesn't mean the rest of your analysis took it into consideration. But I've learned to expect very little in the realm of internal logical consistency or coherence with regards to Libertarians like yourself. The double-think that Libertarianism requires apparently doesn't stop just in the realm of their Libertarianism. The obvious meaning of my comment was: why did nobody on the planet invent Nuclear Power or LFTR through 'market forces'? Why did it take the involvement of government to create this research? Why is most research that actually creates any remarkable breakthroughs government funded? That's it. That's the question. I'm not in disagreement that various interests that sway and influence the government don't influence it against the public good - nothing could be more obvious; but that is a separate topic.

Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2012, 08:14:05 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 25, 2012, 05:48:32 PM

Rather than pick your post apart, I'll just ask the main question: do you think that the government acts of it's own accord in regards to these issues? Why is the government a monolithic entity in your mind?

Hey, congratulations, you've discovered that government is made up of people! Good! Now, you just have to understand that those people's actions are motivated by self-interest, and that re-election is not the only, or sometimes even the primary, goal for them. Even if it is a primary goal, an empty war chest makes for an empty senate seat. Government's actions are largely controlled by lobbyists.

In the case of agencies like the EPA, there isn't even that pretense of public control. The unelected head of the agency makes policy for the unelected agents and bureaucrats. In that case, funding becomes priority, and funding, in government agencies, comes not to those who come to congress and say, "Yup, all is well in my district", but to those who drum up fears and point at things to be afraid of.

The system itself distorts the incentives needed to make good decisions. Is it any wonder that the decisions coming out of that system distort the market?

Well your first thesis is false. Read some history. Go read as many books on Henry Clay as you can find (although all of them I have found so far are strongly tilted in a pro-oligarchy, anti-Nationalism bias) and then tell me that he was solely in the government for his own gain. While our present condition is largely degraded due to lobbyists (which again, what you think must be profound insights, by your need to state the obvious things such as these) it can be fixed and brought in better alignment of what the public good is. In fact, that is the only solution to our crisis - not Utopian garbage that you preach.

And yes, in a way, the larger problems in our government are the unelected officials of these various agencies. But that is because the very interests to which, here, in this post, seem to rail against: oligarchical factions in the government; desired these posts to be created in such a fashion. That is why the Congress is largely a powerless body. Here, go read my review of F.A. Hayek's "The Road to Serfdom" for what I think about this specific problem (in addition to what I think about Hayek).

It's under the pen name, John Anon.
(http://www.amazon.com/The-Road-Serfdom-Documents-The-Definitive/product-reviews/0226320553/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_1?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addOneStar&showViewpoints=0)

Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2012, 08:14:05 PM

Quote from: niemivh on July 25, 2012, 05:48:32 PM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7AfnQ8BN6E

Does this video matter to you?

That video was very interesting. Especially since his reply to Sen. Franken was exactly what I said: "Government invested heavily in "traditional" nuclear power during the war. Shifting gears would be seen as a waste, or simply make them look bad, and is thus avoided."

I believe his exact words were "We have an entire fuel system based around Uranium and it would be a very costly shift to move to Thorium on any sort of short time-scale"

The problem with your analysis here is that you don't look into what he means by "We". But of course, if you are a reactionary such as yourself, whenever you find the conversation runs into "government" then your knee-jerk ideology takes hold and there is no further analysis required in your mind.

Here's a research project: how much money is made by the government in regard to uranium enrichment for fuel supply contracts? How much is made by the private sector? How much financial wealth would be obliterated if LFTR was realized and had as much potential as they think? All those are the most relevant questions in regard to understanding this subject matter.

Quote from: myrkul on July 25, 2012, 08:14:05 PM

You also seem to be conflating "unrealized profits" with "loss". They would not have "lost" that money, they would simply not have made the huge monopoly-level profits that they are making now.

Wow, you are more naive than I previously imagined. Oh, that's right, according to your orthodoxy: government is pure evil and the "private sector" can do no wrong.

Do you think that they (that is, the power industries) have this absurd conception of "loss" that you have? What do you think a commodity or futures contract represents in finance? It is a future representation of wealth; it is traded like an asset, it is treated like an asset. So if something made the business model of all traditional industries much less important or irrelevant these assets would be greatly devalued.

Imagine if I invented a teleportation transporter. I could manufacture them and sell them for $1500 a piece and they required almost no power to run. How fast do you think the value of all the myriad of transportation stocks would plummet?

Heck, there are so many examples of this that the only reason that you refuse to see this is because of your ideology which makes these convoluted leaps of logic necessary. Just give it up brother, there is no reason to continue to do these mental gymnastics in order to maintain your false worldview. You post enough on this forum proving that you have enough free time, perhaps you should learn some things about how the world actually works. I hope you're making progress on those books I linked you in "book club".

Cheers.