ideas to run by Greg for Michigan

[OntarioVanMan]

Boy I was out at the Van Born Hannah Rd area and all them mounds of fill!!

I was thinking with all the garbage Mi has been taking is there a plan to siphon off all that methane and heat/power government and school buildings to save a whack of money??? If not thats a big waste of energy resources.

I was tinkering with the idea..why doesn't Mi drop the heavy weights for trucks on the roads to more normal range and charge for overweight permits and again make some revenue???

 

[Jack_Berry]

i don't know about mi, but here in racine wi, the sc johnson company siphons off methane from the nearby dump to heat the waxdale plant where all those johnson products are thunk up. ya know handi wrap, ziploc bags and the new family favorite oust air sanitizer. just right for those confined spaces with old socks or the little truckers room.






Jack Berry

 

[greg334]

OVM,

They already use the methane from these refuse dumps for heating a bunch of buildings and some industrial processes. I think that they are not allowed to use it for homes or general public use.

The truck thing is a good idea but the heavy weight trucks are a throw back to the auto industry and the 5000 plants we had here. Steel was shipped via truck.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

"The truck thing is a good idea but the heavy weight trucks are a throw back to the auto industry and the 5000 plants we had here. Steel was shipped via truck."


guess someone has to shake some trees in Lansing????

Couldn't they (Mi) sell methane to the auto plants and future businesses as a promotion tool????

 

[greg334]

Well we don't have the auto industry here like we did and we will have more plants closing soon.

Yes that would be a selling point but seeing our government here is so stupid that they can't see how to take advantage of the states resources and how that taxes will not help, they will offer it on one hand but than tax it.

There is now talk that we need to attract high tech alternate energy companies but as someone pointed out in a town hall the other day, we are competing with Florida and California, the former has no income taxes and they have a lot of business benefits that we refuse to even consider to change.

 

[OntarioVanMan]

>Well we don't have the auto industry here like we did and we
>will have more plants closing soon.

Now thats a shame....but really some of the existing plants I've been in are so old and run down...obviously they never invested or never planned to keep them after thier lifespan.....makes you wonder many many years ago they knew they'd be closing them.

 

[greg334]

really some of the existing plants
>I've been in are so old and run down...obviously they never
>invested or never planned to keep them after thier
>lifespan

I worked with Ford a lot with two very important projects about 12 years ago and they didn't get it (the management) and they still don't get it. I think that a lot of things can be automated and a lot of plants could be closed and the companies can invest in the plants here instead of building them in Mexico.

But remember the US has the worst tax system in the world for investing in plants, depreciation and all that cr*p. As much as people want to blame labor, labor is a third of the battle, the remaining part is the complexity of tax system we have. Mexico has enterprise zones which they pay no taxes. Another reason to look at the FairTax, you think?

 

[letzrockexpress]

Oh but you are mistaken my overtaxed michigan friend. In the grand scheme of things, The very idea of giving tax breaks to corporations was and is that these behemoths could re invest the savings into new capital improvements, i.e.technology,machinery,buildings, etc. This was the plan of the conservatives and theoretically, in my opinion, very sound. The problem is that greed always prevails. The money that was to be used for such improvements has gone in to the pockets of the top executives in the form of golden parachutes,high dividends for the stockholders, etc. Most of these people I suspect are occupying your side of the isle...If I were a betting man.

 

[greg334]

Actually I agree with you on the greed issue, outside of the dividends issue (the stockholders are the people who bet on the success and they should get paid). Working for a company that has a 34% profit margin, the greed was so horrible that when they cut out the $250k bonuses for the directors and replaced the with the $150K non-taxed benefit package, many left the company.

But with all that said, the tax system in this country is not business friendly at all and should be.

 

[letzrockexpress]

NO question the stock holders are in it for the return on their investment. I don't have any problem with that. My issue is that the powers that be dole out all the profits.If capital inprovements are not made, the bottom line is initially large. As long as the stockholders are getting a large return they aren't so likely to second guess what management is doing as they take their big pieces of the pie. The problem comes 15 to 20 years down the road when the assets, infrastructure and technology have become antiquated...Stockholders bet on the long run as well as the short run. They should not be entitled to drain all the profit and leave nothing for further development.This is irresponsible.