Comments on: Unsettled in Washington DC

By: mod converter

mod converter — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:20:31 +0000

some tip about this issue are welcome and really sorry if my question is very simple. Thanks in advance

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:39:05 +0000

Hah! It's not that bad – I just end up in the bathroom three hours later followed by several hours of being curled up in a ball.

By: JChauncey

JChauncey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:00:06 +0000

I will definitely tuck this away in my – I may need to know this one day folder. Would hate to bring you some delicious southern food only to have you go into anaphylactic shock.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:28:05 +0000

I try my hardest to avoid onions of all types (since I’m allergic to them).

By: JChauncey

JChauncey — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:27:01 +0000

Did you know that you can only call an onion a vidalia onion if its grown within the designated counties of georgia. oh and when you buy vidalia onions, pick the ones that are relativly flat – they will not be as strong as their more rounded brothers and sisters =P (I have found this to be true for most onions as well)

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 22:19:39 +0000

Lincoln was the worst president in history, even worse than W. He pissed on the constitution and waged war against his own people over a lie (slavery). It would have made more sense to simply purchase the slaves like all other civilized nations had done.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:26:08 +0000

Good metric. I have no idea what % of GDP the US government is (both federal, state, and local). That would be an interesting number.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:11:05 +0000

$17b of federal money flowing into Boulder would make Boulder a swamp!

By: Phil Sugar

Phil Sugar — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:35:39 +0000

Amen about Washington DC. I also agree with you on no viable Libertarian's but I was flipping through CNN on election night in a hotel room (never watch) and he said something that resonated. He said Washington D.C. is like the WWE. Lots of yelling and screaming at each other in front of the camera's but behind the camera's everybody is the same.

As for the redeye's I think its tougher when you combine the redeye with the fact that you're not home.

I take the redeye's two or three times a month….I'm totally fine but I'm back to my home base.

When I go to Europe…….much harder.

By: sigmawaite

sigmawaite — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:40:46 +0000

My experience is that the amount of sleep needed varies with activities, stress, diet, and not really much with age.

I started my career around DC; it was too big then and bigger now. Out to Dulles? Sure, and to Shenandoah, Richmond, Norfolk, Annapolis, Baltimore, Frederick, etc.

Some of the bigger bucks are from supplying services — cars, houses, clothes, hotels, wines — to the relatively well off people feeding at the public trough.

When inflation is a threat, then just whack it back, cut each budget by 30% to 100%, and save several percent of GDP; otherwise would have to raise taxes by that much and, net, eat a LOT of our seed corn. Bummer. For the DC area real estate speculators, sorry 'bout that!

The key: Citizens, informed via Internet 'new media', who send letters to Congress.

By: sigmawaite

sigmawaite — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:36:02 +0000

My experience is that the amount of sleep needed varies with activities, stress, diet, and not really much with age.

I started my career around DC; it was too big then and bigger now. Out to Dullas? Sure, and to Shenandoah, Richmond, Norfolk, Annapolis, Baltimore, Frederick, etc.

Some of the bigger bucks are from supplying services — cars, houses, clothes, hotels, wines — to the relatively well off people feeding at the public trough.

The key: Citizens, informed via Internet 'new media', who send letters to Congress.

By: Nic Brisbourne

Nic Brisbourne — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:39:29 +0000

Here is a European perspective on government (note the absence of the word big):

There is an optimum size for government that varies slightly by country but is say 30-40% of GDP. You get un-natural feeling places when that is concentrated in cities with little other business (we have Brussels) but the reality is that at 30% of GDP government is in effect keeping an awful lot of people in work wherever they are.

For me the question should not be 'how do we make government smaller?', but 'what is the right size for government today?' (given it changes with phases of capitalism and economic crises), and is the current delivery efficient?

By: Rick Brennan

Rick Brennan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:14:40 +0000

Heard an advertisement for Fairfax, Virginia yesterday where the case was made to set up business there because "over $17 billion in government contracts were awarded to businesses in Fairfax in 2008." I wonder what $17 billion in federal money flowing into Boulder, Colorado would do to the town. When the business of government takes precedence over governing, we should fear our government.

By: Randy Domolky

Randy Domolky — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 13:12:47 +0000

Government is the crutch that the economy is leaning on for the moment until we can walk and run again on our own. It is scary to me that we almost crashed and burned but thanks to government and our nations intrinsic value when business credit went to BB- there was still uncle Sam to borrow from China and avoid demise. I think it will work out in the end Brad but I agree with you that there is a bit too much government in all of our lives right now. Especially for someone like me who is a free markets oriented guy. Don't worry. Jobs will start growing again in 2010, the low dollar will boost our exports and I am sending a copy of my U2 album to Iran on how to dismantle an atomic bomb. (For those of you who do not know what an album is, it is the precursor to the 8-track which was the precursor to the cassette tape which was the precursor to the CD which was the precursor to the MP3 which was the precursor to the reunion tour.)

By: @stgarrity

@stgarrity — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:18:57 +0000

Couldn't agree more…I had a similarly unsettling experience at my 5yr college reunion a few weeks ago. A number of my smartest classmates have decided that the most effective way to "make it" (wealth, impact, etc–however you define it) going forward isn't starting a company, or working for a larger corporation and trying to build something–or even going to Wall Street–it's moving to DC and lobbying for government grants/contracts/loans/etc.