The largest known deposit of rare earth elements in America is at the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine, located in California near the Nevada border.
However, if/when the cost/strategic value of rare earth's rise, they will be waiting to be tapped.
The Mountain Pass Mine shutdown in 2002 because of falling prices and stricter environmental regulations. They reopened in 2012 as a result of China's export embargo, but the mine went bankrupt in 2015 and is now closed again.
The $1 item is now free to raise its price either slightly below or at the $2 item as it's competition is no longer limiting it.
No, it doesn't work that way. A solar panel company doesn't just compete with fossil fuel companies. It also competes with other solar panel companies, wind companies, and even companies selling conservation via LED light bulbs and better insulation. A single company cannot just arbitrarily raise prices without losing market share to competitors producing similar products.
There are many studies of bird deaths from windmills, including this meta-study. Windmills kill a few hundred thousand birds a year. Very few of those are from endangered species. By comparison, several BILLION are killed by domestic cats, and many millions die from collisions with buildings.
Objecting to windmills because they "kill birds" is idiotic, and even the people that raise that issue don't really believe it is valid. They just aren't bright enough to think of a more rational objection.
A subsidy or tax break can have a similar type of effect but in the opposite direction.
The problem with subsidies and tax breaks is that they require the government to "pick winners". If you subsidize solar panels, you will get more solar panels. But if you instead tax fossil fuel, you leave it up to the market to find the most cost effective alternative, which may not be solar panels. It may be wind, or LED light bulbs, or better attic insulation.
Another problem with subsidies is that, once in place, they are politically difficult to remove. During WW2, we subsidized mohair to use in flight uniforms. Those subsidies have lasted for more than 60 years. Ethanol subsidies continue, despite being widely recognized as doing more harm than good.
It is better to tax the "losers" than subsidize the "winners". Slap a tax on carbon, and let the market take it from there.
The magnets in wind turbines use neodymium, which is a "rare earth", but is not actually very rare, nor particularly expensive (about 30 cents per gram). Most production is in China, but America and Canada are also producers. Mining rare earths is not a major environmental problem. Comparing it to the environmental cost of fossil fuels is absurd.
Rare earths do not fuel wars. Tantalum mining was used to fund rebels during the Congo civil war, but tantalum is not a rare earth metal.
And, they could magically go away with proper Federal legislation.
This is true, and it has been done before in other countries. Chernobyl was built without any influence from activists, and the people pointing out potential flaws at Fukushima were sidelined and ignored. So there are precedents for streamlining construction.
Fukushima was a complete lack of following best practices.
That is obvious in hindsight. But before the tsunami, pro-nukes were saying Chernobyl was a fluke event with unique circumstances, and that it couldn't happen again.
In California most of the DMV functions are available online. I haven't been inside the DMV office for more than 5 years. Unfortunately, lack of exposure to the DMV bureaucracy has caused a lot of millennials to believe that socialism is a good idea.
There is a very obvious problem of mass unemployment and automation
No there isn't. Unemployment is at 5%, with is basically full employment. Workforce participation isn't back to where it was in 2007, but basically nearly everyone that wants a job can find one. The problem is that the jobs being offered are not very good, and wages are stagnant.
If automation was happening on a massive scale, productivity would be soaring. But productivity is stagnant and barely rising at all. Many manufacturing jobs were lost to automation in the 1970s and 1980s, but that process has mostly run its course, and service jobs, which dominate today's economy, are proving much harder to automate.
Someday, robots may steal all our jobs, but there is very little evidence of that happening today.
They have been regulated into standing right outside the door under the drip
In California, smokers are required to stay at least 20 feet from the entrance. The last place I worked had had a yellow line painted on the sidewalk. You smoke inside that line, you got a written warning. On the second offence, you were fired. My current employer avoids the problem by refusing to hire smokers, which is totally legal. Smokers have no employment rights.
I would have to assume that the millions of people who smoke would also have a perception of the benefits of smoking
That would be a bad assumption. Most smokers start when they are minors, trying to fit in or look cool. By the time they realize that it is stupid, they are addicted. Most smokers do not like smoking and wish they had never started. If we can stop the tobacco industry from preying on shortsighted underage children, their business model will collapse.
Also if you have schizophrenia. Nicotine is an anti-psychotic, and can reduce the tremors caused by some other anti-psychotic meds. About 80% of people with schizophrenia smoke, compared to about 20% of the rest of the population.
The solution to "Hollywood Accounting" was for performers (starting with Jimmy Stewart) to demand a percentage of gross revenue rather than net profit.
The solution for taxes should be the same. Gross revenue is way harder to manipulate than profit. Taxing revenue is also more fair: If two companies have similar revenues, then they likely use a similar amount of public resources and infrastructure, although one may be much more profitable than the other. Taxing profits just punishes success while subsidizing failure.
Prior to ransomware, insecure computers were often used as spambots, pushing the cost of poor security onto others. But ransomware puts the cost of poor security directly were it belongs, and provides a strong incentive for better security.
... and the types of services sold through websites like silk road?
I don't "support" these services, but I am willing to tolerate most of them. The government is using scaremongering about "murder for hire" to gin up support for the War on Drugs, and to justify regulating what women do with their vaginas.
Vote for whom? Everybody knows that America's system of corporate tax is totally dysfunctional. We have the highest corporate taxes in the world, yet collect very little because of all the loopholes. We give companies a huge incentive to create jobs anywhere but in America. Both parties recognize this problem, and there are plenty of proposals to fix it. But they all get caught up in the political gridlock, so nothing changes.
How do you tell the difference between the driver's phone and a passenger's phone?
A weight sensor in the passenger seat. Many cars already have those, so they can warn if the passenger seat belt is unfastened, and adjust the force of the passenger airbag depending on the size of the passenger. If there is no passenger, then the system could assume that any phone in the car belongs to the driver.
People could bypass the lockout by putting a sandbag in the passenger seat, so it wouldn't be a 100% solution. But an 80% solution may be better than nothing.
We could also, or alternatively, put more resources into self-driving cars and driver assisting technology, such as lane control and automatic braking.
By assigning a "Trophy" for traveling a certain speed, they are creating an addicting experience
I crave Slashdot mod points. I get an endorphin rush every time one of my insightful posts (like this one) goes to +5. Sometimes I post while driving. If I crash, should I be able to sue Slashdot? Should I be able to sue the people that mod me down, thus requiring me to make even more posts to get high?
Actually, is there a religion that doesn't oppress women?
My neighbors are Buddhist, and they have invited me to go to potluck dinners at their temple many times. While I was there, I didn't notice any women being oppressed.
No. This is wrong. Yogurt is made with bacteria. You can read all about it on Wikipedia, where the very first sentence explains that yogurt is made with bacterial fermentation.
any bacteria it has are very unlikely to be bacteria normally found in the gut.
Wrong again. Many of the bacteria commonly found in yogurt are also found in mammalian guts. Here is one example but there are many others.
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The U.S. has a huge store of rare earths
The largest known deposit of rare earth elements in America is at the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine, located in California near the Nevada border.
However, if/when the cost/strategic value of rare earth's rise, they will be waiting to be tapped.
The Mountain Pass Mine shutdown in 2002 because of falling prices and stricter environmental regulations. They reopened in 2012 as a result of China's export embargo, but the mine went bankrupt in 2015 and is now closed again.
The $1 item is now free to raise its price either slightly below or at the $2 item as it's competition is no longer limiting it.
No, it doesn't work that way. A solar panel company doesn't just compete with fossil fuel companies. It also competes with other solar panel companies, wind companies, and even companies selling conservation via LED light bulbs and better insulation. A single company cannot just arbitrarily raise prices without losing market share to competitors producing similar products.
there are quadrillions of tons of rare earths to be found in the asteroid belt.
Current cost of a kg of neodymium: $300.
Cost to lift a kg to low earth orbit: $10,000.
Estimated cost to retrieve a kg from deep space: $100,000.
I don't think your business plan will be funded.
You make an assertion with no proof whatsoever
There are many studies of bird deaths from windmills, including this meta-study. Windmills kill a few hundred thousand birds a year. Very few of those are from endangered species. By comparison, several BILLION are killed by domestic cats, and many millions die from collisions with buildings.
Objecting to windmills because they "kill birds" is idiotic, and even the people that raise that issue don't really believe it is valid. They just aren't bright enough to think of a more rational objection.
A subsidy or tax break can have a similar type of effect but in the opposite direction.
The problem with subsidies and tax breaks is that they require the government to "pick winners". If you subsidize solar panels, you will get more solar panels. But if you instead tax fossil fuel, you leave it up to the market to find the most cost effective alternative, which may not be solar panels. It may be wind, or LED light bulbs, or better attic insulation.
Another problem with subsidies is that, once in place, they are politically difficult to remove. During WW2, we subsidized mohair to use in flight uniforms. Those subsidies have lasted for more than 60 years. Ethanol subsidies continue, despite being widely recognized as doing more harm than good.
It is better to tax the "losers" than subsidize the "winners". Slap a tax on carbon, and let the market take it from there.
The magnets in wind turbines use neodymium, which is a "rare earth", but is not actually very rare, nor particularly expensive (about 30 cents per gram). Most production is in China, but America and Canada are also producers. Mining rare earths is not a major environmental problem. Comparing it to the environmental cost of fossil fuels is absurd.
Rare earths do not fuel wars. Tantalum mining was used to fund rebels during the Congo civil war, but tantalum is not a rare earth metal.
And, they could magically go away with proper Federal legislation.
This is true, and it has been done before in other countries. Chernobyl was built without any influence from activists, and the people pointing out potential flaws at Fukushima were sidelined and ignored. So there are precedents for streamlining construction.
People tell him it's because of lawsuits and anti-nuclear activists.
The lawsuits and activists are not going to magically go away, so they need to be factored into any realistic cost assessment of a nuclear plant.
Fukushima was a complete lack of following best practices.
That is obvious in hindsight. But before the tsunami, pro-nukes were saying Chernobyl was a fluke event with unique circumstances, and that it couldn't happen again.
They were hired away from the FBI, and are now employed building Silk Road 3.
In California most of the DMV functions are available online. I haven't been inside the DMV office for more than 5 years. Unfortunately, lack of exposure to the DMV bureaucracy has caused a lot of millennials to believe that socialism is a good idea.
There is a very obvious problem of mass unemployment and automation
No there isn't. Unemployment is at 5%, with is basically full employment. Workforce participation isn't back to where it was in 2007, but basically nearly everyone that wants a job can find one. The problem is that the jobs being offered are not very good, and wages are stagnant.
If automation was happening on a massive scale, productivity would be soaring. But productivity is stagnant and barely rising at all. Many manufacturing jobs were lost to automation in the 1970s and 1980s, but that process has mostly run its course, and service jobs, which dominate today's economy, are proving much harder to automate.
Someday, robots may steal all our jobs, but there is very little evidence of that happening today.
they are not willing to look for the reasons
The reasons are obvious, and generally acknowledged. They are:
1. Technology
2. Globalisation
3. Regressive taxes
nor even talk about changing any aspect of the system.
Everybody talks about changing the system. The problem is that they disagree on the solution.
They have been regulated into standing right outside the door under the drip
In California, smokers are required to stay at least 20 feet from the entrance. The last place I worked had had a yellow line painted on the sidewalk. You smoke inside that line, you got a written warning. On the second offence, you were fired. My current employer avoids the problem by refusing to hire smokers, which is totally legal. Smokers have no employment rights.
I would have to assume that the millions of people who smoke would also have a perception of the benefits of smoking
That would be a bad assumption. Most smokers start when they are minors, trying to fit in or look cool. By the time they realize that it is stupid, they are addicted. Most smokers do not like smoking and wish they had never started. If we can stop the tobacco industry from preying on shortsighted underage children, their business model will collapse.
Also if you have schizophrenia. Nicotine is an anti-psychotic, and can reduce the tremors caused by some other anti-psychotic meds. About 80% of people with schizophrenia smoke, compared to about 20% of the rest of the population.
Google "Hollywood Accounting"
The solution to "Hollywood Accounting" was for performers (starting with Jimmy Stewart) to demand a percentage of gross revenue rather than net profit.
The solution for taxes should be the same. Gross revenue is way harder to manipulate than profit. Taxing revenue is also more fair: If two companies have similar revenues, then they likely use a similar amount of public resources and infrastructure, although one may be much more profitable than the other. Taxing profits just punishes success while subsidizing failure.
So you support ransomware
Prior to ransomware, insecure computers were often used as spambots, pushing the cost of poor security onto others. But ransomware puts the cost of poor security directly were it belongs, and provides a strong incentive for better security.
... and the types of services sold through websites like silk road?
I don't "support" these services, but I am willing to tolerate most of them. The government is using scaremongering about "murder for hire" to gin up support for the War on Drugs, and to justify regulating what women do with their vaginas.
Why does anyone want a currency that is extremely volatile, can easily be stolen, and is used to cover the tracks of criminal activity?
Because many of us believe that most of those "criminal activities" shouldn't be illegal in the first place.
Vote accordingly.
Vote for whom? Everybody knows that America's system of corporate tax is totally dysfunctional. We have the highest corporate taxes in the world, yet collect very little because of all the loopholes. We give companies a huge incentive to create jobs anywhere but in America. Both parties recognize this problem, and there are plenty of proposals to fix it. But they all get caught up in the political gridlock, so nothing changes.
How do you tell the difference between the driver's phone and a passenger's phone?
A weight sensor in the passenger seat. Many cars already have those, so they can warn if the passenger seat belt is unfastened, and adjust the force of the passenger airbag depending on the size of the passenger. If there is no passenger, then the system could assume that any phone in the car belongs to the driver.
People could bypass the lockout by putting a sandbag in the passenger seat, so it wouldn't be a 100% solution. But an 80% solution may be better than nothing.
We could also, or alternatively, put more resources into self-driving cars and driver assisting technology, such as lane control and automatic braking.
By assigning a "Trophy" for traveling a certain speed, they are creating an addicting experience
I crave Slashdot mod points. I get an endorphin rush every time one of my insightful posts (like this one) goes to +5. Sometimes I post while driving. If I crash, should I be able to sue Slashdot? Should I be able to sue the people that mod me down, thus requiring me to make even more posts to get high?
Those nations also have a habit of being a bit... in the dark ages
The countries in the dark ages are those that allow politicians to put limits on scientific inquiry based on religious superstition.
Actually, is there a religion that doesn't oppress women?
My neighbors are Buddhist, and they have invited me to go to potluck dinners at their temple many times. While I was there, I didn't notice any women being oppressed.
Except that yoghurt is primarily made from yeast
No. This is wrong. Yogurt is made with bacteria. You can read all about it on Wikipedia, where the very first sentence explains that yogurt is made with bacterial fermentation.
any bacteria it has are very unlikely to be bacteria normally found in the gut.
Wrong again. Many of the bacteria commonly found in yogurt are also found in mammalian guts. Here is one example but there are many others.