From: dean@vexcel.com (dean alaska)
Newsgroups: alt.activism
Subject: Re: jerry brown ruining something?
Date: 8 Apr 92 18:23:22 GMT
Organization: VEXCEL Corporation, Boulder, CO

In article <65-PCNews-124beta@ccs.covici.com> covici@ccs.covici.com writes:
>dean@vexcel.com (dean alaska @ VEXCEL Corporation, Boulder, CO) once wrote....
>>
>>> Jerry Brown and his agenda for the
>>> destruction of America
>>> by Brian Lantz 
>>
>>> 
>
>>   > Jerry Brown's environmental policies are better
>>> known, such as his protection of the Mediterranean
>>> Fruitfly. The ``Medfly'' is now endemic, and costs
>>
>>Brown wasn't "protecting" the medfly, he resisted the
>>indiscriminate spraying of pesticides over urban areas. 
>
>Same thing.  To eradicate the fly, you had to move fast and with a
>lot of aerial spraying -- he delayed and forced  them as I remember 
>it -- to use on the ground methods -- much more costly and less 
>effective.  This would go along with his philosophy that human beings 
>are no more important than flies.

No, it goes right along with the philosophy that humans are more important
than vegetables, which is what the spraying was supposed to protect.
And the previous spraying campaigns only had a marginal effect on the
flies anyway.
>
>>> California agriculture millions of dollars a year. Brown's
>>> ``Small is Beautiful'' philosophy was used to sell a package
>>> of policies to Californians which wrecked the
>>> infrastructure of the state. Brown personally killed the
>>> construction of the Sundesert nuclear power plant and
>>> sabotaged completion of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power
>>> plant for years. In the decade encompassing Brown's
>>> governorship, industry energy costs skyrocketed by as much
>>> as 900%. As a result, industrial jobs shrank and energy
>>> consumption, even with a growing state population, grew at
>>> less than 2% a year, compared to projections of 6-8%. 
>>
>>Some of California's utilities "brag" about the lack of growth in
>>energy usage.  Conservation has removed the need for costly new
>>power plant construction.  Do we measure our wealth by per capita
>>energy consumption?  Browns tenure in CA included some of the oil
>>shocks so it isn't surprising (nor his fault) that energy costs
>>went up.
>
>Well, measuring wealth by energy per capita isn't too bad in a first 
>approximation.  As to why the utilities bragged about zero-growth, 

If 2 people have a $1000 and one spends it faster than the other, is
he richer?  No, just dumber.  The utilities bragged about zero-growth
because it is a smart policy.

>that's there problem.  Brown's destruction of the infrastructure in 
>general was evil and he'd do it  again as President -- 
>nonwithstanding his rhetoric about reindustrializing the country.  

>The only industries he would have is no flush toilets and maybe pot 
>processing.

As I mentioned before, conservation technologies have the promise of
huge numbers of jobs.  From the initial research to installation and
maintenance, they provide a wide variety of jobs.  And pot processing
would be a good idea.  It was the main source of paper fiber once.
>
>>   > The same insane policies were applied by Governor
>>> Brown to other areas of California's basic infrastucture.
>>> Under Brown and President Jimmy Carter, dam projects came
>>> to a standstill, contributing to today's much-publicized
>>> water crisis. Highway and road construction and
>>
>>I believe there has been a drought.  Virtually all of CA's rivers
>>are already dammed.  And he certainly wasn't fighting public
>>sentiment in the few that did get blocked.
>>
>
>Well, that has nothing to do with the problem, his efforts in 
>blocking the water projects did make the water shortage worse -- he 
>probably thinks that's good.

The water shortage was worst in Santa Barbara where the people refused
to hook into the state system.  It was also bad in areas that were denied
water because other areas (like LA), had bought the water and taken it
away with existing water projects.
>
>>> maintenance ground to a halt. California under Governor
>>> Brown built only a quarter as many miles of highways and
>>> freeways as it did under Reagan--2,110 miles versus 8,788
>>> miles. (For the record, Governor Reagan had already begun
>>> disinvesting through neglected road maintenance and
>>> non-existent investment on mass transit--$508,000 in eight
>>> years.) For example, in 1978-79, California ranked {last}
>>> per capita among all states in expenditures on streets,
>>> roads, and freeways. In short, there was a total net
>>> disinvestment in vital ``hard'' and ``soft'' infrastructure
>>> during the Reagan-Brown years. 
>>
>>   > Today, on the presidential campaign trail, Jerry
>>> Brown advocates the same policies, proposing, for example,
>>> that he will save $300 billion a year by cutting national
>>> energy consumption. This, he slyly states, will create 7
>>> million jobs. Where? Brown proposes minimum wage jobs in a
>>
>>Conservation technologies have tremendous growth protential and tend
>>to be much more labor intensive than current industries. 
>Exactly the point, much more labor intensive!  The jobs that wouled 
>be created would be low-wage jobs of no skill -- not what we want in 
>a growing economy.

Labor intensize means lots of jobs are created.  They aren't the highest
paying, but they aren't necessarily low paying/low skilled jobs.
Capital intensive (the opposite of labor intensive) means that you
invest lots of money to make machines, not jobs.
>
>>Considering that California's economy has only recently hit the doldrums
>>after a wildy succesful (too much for many) 1980's, the general comments
>>that Brown destroyed the economy in CA doesn't hold water.  
>
>
>Not so -- the so-called boom of the 80's was just a speculative buble 
>-- particularly so in California.  In spite of a shrinking physical 
>economy, prices for existing items such as real estate ran away -- 
>that is no real recovery.
>
You are correct about the real estate boom, but that was only part of
the picture.  Job creation was high.
>
>
>----
>Please respond by e-mail as I get very far behind in reading this 
>newsgroup.
>
>         John Covici
>          covici@ccs.covici.com


-- 

		dingo in boulder	(dean@vexcel.com)
Newsgroups: alt.activism,talk.politics.misc