Government the answer you say?

Discussion in 'Politics and other "Messy" Stuff' started by minimark, Oct 21, 2011.

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  1. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #1 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Last edited: Oct 21, 2011
    Apparently our Government has invested in another company; Fisker Automobiles. Yep they have put $592 MILLION dollars of our hard earned tax dollars (about 80% of which came from the so called rich) into Fisker!!

    Good investment?:idea:

    Create good paying American jobs?:fingerscrossed:

    No, the cars are and will be manufactered in FINLAND!!!:incazzato:

    Folks we simply must have term limits.:mad2:

    PS: Yes this was done under the last Stimulus Bill and Fisker is a luxury electric car........wonder if they were going to use Solyndra solar cells?
     
  2. ronnie948

    ronnie948 New Member

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    #2 ronnie948, Oct 21, 2011
    I may be wrong **BUT**

    I think the Fisker's are going to made at the old GM Boxwood road plant in Wilmington Delaware.

    I was up there in June and when I asked about the plant (I worked there in 65/66/67 ) My friend told me that Fisker is using the plant to produce electric cars.

    Anybody live in Wilmington? Maybe you can check it out for us.

    :confused::confused5::confused:
     
  3. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #3 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Being reported on the news, that the factory is in Finland. They said they couldn't find a place in the US that would work........
     
  4. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #4 Nathan, Oct 21, 2011
    If one does a bit of digging and isn't instantly swayed by what the news media dumps on us all one would find that the plan was to build the halo Fisker Karma in Finland all along. The Delaware plant was purchased to build other models coming later. That would include the Project Nina vehicles.

    Fisker has repeatedly said that it plans to build a plug-in vehicle that’s cheaper and higher-volume than its $87,900 Fisker Karma, on the condition that it receives a DOE loan.

    Fisker plans to use $169.3 million of its loan to work with U.S. suppliers to produce the more expensive Fisker Karma, which will be developed at its Michigan and California offices, but then will be assembled “overseas.” The other $359.36 million will go toward producing Fisker’s Project Nina, which will be entirely manufactured in the United States.

    But then again why should the facts get in the way of a sensationalist news story.
     
  5. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #5 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Not convinced Nathan when you consider that the Karma which is being manufactured in Finland has not even proved itself sellable in the market and the Nina is not much more than a pipe dream at present time.

    In other words we have invested a huge amount of money, money that we ourselves borrowed because this Country is broke, in something that if everything they promise comes true, years away from creating any significant jobs in OUR economy. BIG IF.

    Heck yeah, I think it is sensationally stupid.
     
  6. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #6 Nathan, Oct 21, 2011
    Without risk there is no reward.

    I may not agree with where the money went but they didn't ask me.

    We can point to many decisions our gov't has made in recent years towards investments and with hindsight say there were bad ideas.

    I'm not defending what has happened but merely pointing out that while the Karma and Nina projects are late they are at least still in the pipeline. My contention is that the media is looking for anything they can report on that makes gov't look bad. Often times without performing the background checks that provide clarity to the issue.

    It's not entertaining "news" to report that Fisker trying to do what they say they would do two years but is running late on the project. It is much more entertaining to to just stamp a big FAIL on it while picking the parts that will garner the most ire from the viewing public.

    Remember the Maine!!
     
  7. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #7 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Nathan you are blaming the messenger for what bad government is doing.

    We borrowed money from a foreign country to give it to a company to build a yet very unproven product, a company with no past success in this field to build a product in another country, all on the promise that they may build a yet undeveloped product here in the future. Years down the road at best.....

    Bad government? Yes.
     
  8. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #8 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Isn't this speculation?

    Do we pay taxes for the Government to speculate with it?

    Should the government be in the business of speculating with our money, and or should they be in business at all, other than in a regulatory function?

    Are not those that act as a watchdog over government waste doing the taxpayers a service?
     
  9. Nathan

    Nathan Founder

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    #9 Nathan, Oct 21, 2011
    Was the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862 not speculative? With that we have now have institutions such as Cornell, MIT, Purdue, and Rutgers.

    Or the Pacific Railroad Acts of 1862 through 1866 that created the railroad system of the time.

    How about the funding of ARPANET and the NSFNET for over three decades.

    Weren't all these speculative at the time?
     
  10. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #10 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Did not say government speculation was new.

    But comparing things like land and universities to building an electric car is apples and oranges....

    Besides electric cars are not a new technology, they failed years ago for on road use by the masses. That said, they have enjoyed some good success at the local Country Club golf courses over the years! Wouldn't want Buffy's putt disturbed by a noicey cart would we..... lol ;)
     
  11. BThayer23

    BThayer23 Well-Known Member

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    #11 BThayer23, Oct 21, 2011
    :popcorn:
     
  12. Thumper460

    Thumper460 Active Member

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    #12 Thumper460, Oct 21, 2011
    OMG.. Minimark!! I am totally on your side with this!!

    Just me........................another fed up American

    Thumper
     
  13. DneprDave

    DneprDave Well-Known Member
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    #13 DneprDave, Oct 21, 2011
    Is Fisker the company that makes scissors?

    Dave
     
  14. gds194

    gds194 New Member

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    #14 gds194, Oct 21, 2011
    I could use some stimulus money to start a new business.... Not much, enough capital to last a year. By then I should be ready to franchise the company. My company would be geared towards all of us MINI owners- Hey Government how about $200K? I promise to keep it within the 50 states! :donut1:
     
  15. BThayer23

    BThayer23 Well-Known Member

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    #15 BThayer23, Oct 21, 2011
    Close. Fiskars.
     
  16. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #16 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    No. Fisker Automotive was started by Henric Fisker and Bernard Koehler and this is their first and only product.

    Best I can find is that it has less than 150 full time employees world wide. It's home office is in Anaheim, CA.

    (Yep, info gotten from Google and Wikipedia)

    By the way they have several private investors too.

    Delorean anyone?

    Anyone care to buy stock in it?

    Oops you sort of already have....
     
  17. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #17 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    For perspective:

    For the same $592million dollars, the federal government (we the taxpayers) could have given 59,200 families who are about to have their homes foreclosed on...... $10,000 each, most likely saving their home.

    Now add on the other over $500million dollars we pissed away on Solyndra and we could have given over 118,000 families $10,000 each to save their homes....

    I can go on and on, throw the other billion and half that was recently pissed away on Solar energy, a billion and a half that I think it was something like 15 full time American jobs it created.....and you could have saved over HALF MILLION FAMILIES FROM HOME FORECLOSURE.

    Now tell me again why we need more government and why the government can better spend my money than I can?

    PS: ....and by the way; all the money mentioned above is money we did not have, it is money we borrowed and are precently and for a very long time into the future going to be paying interest on. Interest that will be going to other countries and to...God forbid.....the Banks.
     
  18. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #18 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    :yikes: ....call 911! :lol:


    At least we can agree on the important stuff..:Thumbsup:
     
  19. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #19 minimark, Oct 21, 2011
    Just in:

    Al Gore is an investor in Fisker.

    Favorite quote of the day on this: "This is Venture Socialism."
     
  20. minimark

    minimark Well-Known Member

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    #20 minimark, Oct 22, 2011
    Little more on what our $592million was invested in:

    The Fisker Karma cost $97,000.00.

    It will only go all electric for 32 miles before the turbocharged gasoline engine kicks in.

    All averaged in, it's average fuel economy is 19mpg.
     
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