Patents

The Biden administration has made, what appears to be, an off the cuff decision to turn over covid vaccine technology to the world by waiving patent laws. Much of this science has been the result of years of research at a cost of billions of dollars and millions of man hours. The US industry will quickly produce 12 billion doses and share those with the world at reasonable cost. The big hold up is supply chain. The vaccine requires hundreds of ingredients from dozens of countries and the US has the fastest production facilities. If the technology is released other countries will be competing for the same materials and this will slow down US production and cause the world to wait for other countries to pick up production at less efficient facilities. It also causes concern about future investments by pharma companies. Will their research dollars be wasted if the results of their work is forced to be shared with the rest of the world.

Nuke power

Climate change has been seen as an environmental issue but evidence suggest there is a political agenda. The Greens suggest that the problem is severe to the point that the would as we know it will end a few years. These same people refuse to discuss thorium nuke plants which would solve the problem. The reasons they opposed nuke plants in the past is the fear of meltdown and the disposal of waste products. Thorium solves both of those problems as there can be no meltdown and they use waste products as fuel. The Greens ignore the environmental damage caused by the mining and disposal of rare earths and lithium. They seem not to understand that wind and solar need back up systems. They seem not to understand that jet engines run by the expanding gas from exploding fossil fuel. Even if the weight problem associated with batteries were overcome do they want to go back to spinning propellers. The US gets 20% of its power from nuclear and has been operating these plants for 60 years with one minor accident. The new thorium plants would be even safer. The sensible approach would be to use all sources of power. There is a place for wind and solar and that is on any fixed structure and next to power plants.

Global tax

Biden has proposed a global corporate tax to even the playing field which would prevent companies from moving in order to get lower taxes. In reality most countries are lowering their corporate tax rate to compete and encourage business to move to their country. Ireland is a good example of how this brings business to their shores. Almost 1,000 multinational companies have chosen Ireland as their strategic European base due to our pro-business environment and attractive taxation rates. Ireland has one of the lowest corporation tax rates in Europe at 12.5%. Companies can avail of a 25% tax credit against research and development costs. Let’s say you are a business that needs lots of patents, like a technology, manufacturing, or pharmaceutical firm. Any income you make from Irish patents you own is taxed at 6.25%. To Ireland, this encourages a robust research and development sector; to big American firms, it means they have an incentive to get lots of Irish patents.

Police stops

The police make on average 50 million contacts per year resulting in 10 million arrest. Of these about 100,000 result in some form of confrontation. This results in about 1,000 shooting deaths per year. "the Washington Post’s database of fatal police shootings showed 14 unarmed Black victims and 25 unarmed white victims in 2019". This is a spike since over the past 20 years 160 unarmed Black men have been killed by police or 8 per year. Here is the data going back to 1968. https://www.reneeater.com/on-monuments-blog/tag/list+of+unarmed+black+people+killed+by+police Contrast that with the fact that each year 6,000 black men are killed by 6,000 black men.

College

Back in the 50's when I went to college we went to school part time and worked full time. The old way of using the GI Bill was not available as it was discontinued. I was a SOTA, students older than average because I was in school for nine years. One day in economics class I had a heated argument with the professor. He said the purpose of business was to provide goods and services and I said the purpose was to make a profit. After class he came and thanked me for expressing my opinion and said this is how he and the rest of the students learn. It appears in today's world that students are not encouraged to disagree and some are even punished for expressing their opinions. The university setting is the place to exercise your free speech rights and should be encouraged. In many schools this is no longer the case. Many students find their opinions are considered hate speech or outright lies and they are shut down by the teachers. Too bad.

Stimulus checks

Has anyone noticed that many of those who are most concerned about Covid safety are getting paychecks and those who are unemployed are more concerned about the economy. Do most people believe that if teachers and school administrators would have closed schools if they did not get paid. Do most people understand that all government employees continued to get paid whether they worked or not and they will all get the latest free money from the government. They got $1,200, $600 and now $1,400. This is $3,200 and they have never lost a paycheck. Polls show that these programs are very popular. The poll found that 78 percent of Americans supported the stimulus checks, including 90 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans. I wonder what a poll for a forth stimulus check would show.

Racism

The dictionary definition of systemic refers to it as medical term meaning infecting the entire body. President Biden says systemic racism is a stain on nation's soul. Biden said he had a mandate “to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country.” Does this mean that everyone is racist or just some are racist and if it is only some who are they and how do you know they are racist. Does making a general statement like that divide or unite the country. Recall that most people feel that what the president says is important and should be taken seriously. Does the average white person now feel that the president thinks he is racist. Is the president racist. How many people do you know who are racist and why do you believe that. Are you racist and if so how do you know. The same question if you are not racist. Does the President have an ulterior motive for making such a questionable statement or what legitimate reason might he have. Calling someone a racist ranks right up there with child molester or smut purveyor. Isn't it necessary to have some evidence before making such a claim or in today's world is it OK to make the claim without evidence. The effectiveness of cancel culture is based on the fact that once a claim is made the evidence becomes unimportant. Does this make people uncomfortable and if not why not. Remember innocent until proven guilty.