We are less than two grand from the goal for the space-safety Kickstarter project. I have an offer from a potential donor to match the next thousand that comes in, which means that the rest of you only have to contribute a thousand on your own over the next two and a half days to get it home. Please, have at it.
Category Archives: Business
Less Than $2000 To Go
We just broke five grand on the Kickstarter project with a hundred-dollar increase. We have to average about $1030/hr for the next 70+ hours.
Two Thirds Of The Way There
But only three days left to fully fund the Kickstarter project for space safety.
More Dragon Thoughts
From Tom Jones, over at Popular Mechanics.
Who Owns The Asteroids?
A discussion of the implications of the Outer Space Treaty for mining, with Frans von der Dunk.
The Wrong Campaign Gaffe Comparison
I have some thoughts on just how “fine” the private sector is doing under Barack Obama, over at PJMedia.
Youtubing Space Safety
I’ve uploaded the video from the Kickstarter project to Youtube in the hope of giving it more exposure, with only a little over four days to go. Unfortunately. I can’t come up with any way to steer people to the project from there. I don’t seem to be able to edit the description of the video, and comments don’t allow links.
Past The $4500 Mark This Weekend
Less than $2500 to go for the space-safety Kickstarter project, but it has to happen by Friday afternoon.
Detroit
The moral of the story:
Even the best tax regimes are cannibalistic: Every tax is an incentive for the taxpayer to relocate to a more friendly jurisdiction. But tax rates are not the only incentive: Google is not going to set up shop in Somalia. Healthy governments create conditions that make it worth paying the taxes — which is to say, governments are a lot like participants in any other competitive market (with some obvious and important exceptions). The benefits of being in Detroit used to be worth the costs, but in recent decades millions of people and thousands of enterprises large and small have decided that is no longer the case. It is not as though one cannot profitably manufacture automobiles in the United States — Toyota does — you just can’t do it very well in Detroit. No one with eyes in his head could honestly think that the services provided by the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan are worth the costs.
The third lesson is moral. Detroit’s institutions have long been marked by corruption, venality, and self-serving. Healthy societies have high levels of trust. Who trusts Detroit? This is not angels-dancing-on-the-head-of-a-pin stuff. People do not invest in firms, industries, cities, or countries they do not trust. Corruption makes people poor.
And here are some recent graphic images of the results, from (Michigan ex-pat) Amy Alkon. As went Detroit, so will go the country, if the Democrats get their way on a national level, as they did in Detroit.
[Late-morning update]
“Detroit is liberalism’s Nagasaki.” Except there’s nothing “liberal” about it.
We Are Devo
Patricia’s nephew Matt, has picked up an interesting addition to his Kickstarter film project:
We have great news about the music in Charlie and Wendy. After talking with some of the band members for the last few weeks, DEVO has become involved with the film. A song by DEVO will be played during the opening and closing credits. The song works perfectly for the film. We are big fans of DEVO and many movies their music has been used in (especially by Wes Anderson). We are lucky to have them on board and are excited about using the song in the movie.
They still have a ways to go, but are off to a good start.