I guess that you and I see things differently, the government transforming our electrical generation from dense power supplies to less dense renewables will come at the cost of trillions of dollars, as the article points out it will divert productive resources from the private economy to centrally planned projects that the marketplace did not show a demand for. The strongest economy in the world was built on free markets, the US during my younger years used to teach us that central planning (government planned economies) does not work. I still believe that to be true, it worries me that the government is meddling in areas in which it has little to no expertise and we will all pay a price.

Author:
Connor O'Keeffe


On June 28, President Joe Biden took to the stage in Chicago to drum up support for his economic agenda, which his own team has taken to calling “Bidenomics.” The speech was part of a broader publicity tour, “Investing in America,” with the president and his cabinet traveling the country trying to get the American people to see Biden’s economic policies as successful and popular.

In his speech, the president attacked so-called trickle-down economics, which he painted as the dominant economic policy of the American government for decades. He then defined his agenda, Bidenomics, as a “new philosophy” set to “restore the American Dream.”

But Bidenomics isn’t a new philosophy. If you look at what’s been enacted and what’s still being proposed, it becomes clear that all Biden is doing is ramping up the federal government’s industrial policy. And industrial policy has, unfortunately, been around for a long time—as have its effects. When governments pursue industrial policies, they attempt a form of entrepreneurship. And in doing so, they divert scarce resources and capital away from the production of goods and services that people actually want, freed from the feedback of the market. Bidenomics won’t restore the American Dream but will do it damage.

All the fancy, focus-group-approved economic talking points the administration is now spamming us with begin to unravel when one understands basic economic truths. Chief among these truths is that the economy is a process—not a state of being. Specifically, it’s a process for producing goods and services that satisfy the needs and wants of consumers. Every part of every line of production is a means toward that end.

For an economy to grow and everyone to become wealthier, some people need to take on the role of an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs reallocate resources to new lines of production or refine existing lines to account for changing factors like technology, capital availability, and consumer preferences. This activity is undertaken with the purpose of producing or contributing to the production of goods and services that consumers value enough to pay for.

In a market unhampered by a government, the resources and capital used in production are the property of capitalist-entrepreneurs. That means they have control over how these inputs get used. And, because they also own the produced outputs, the capitalist-entrepreneurs are personally subjected to the constant and unignorable feedback of the profit and loss system.

Consumers on the free market can opt out of any exchange for any reason. That’s why capitalist-entrepreneurs can only make profits if they produce things consumers value. When they don’t, they are stuck with the losses. Economic losses are a motivating signal that the resources used in a line of production would be better used elsewhere.

How does Bidenomics fit into all of this? Again, one could describe much of Biden’s economic agenda as ramping up industrial policy—meaning the government is attempting entrepreneurship. Political officials are using tax dollars to acquire resources that they then allocate to new production lines. Bidenomics also entails using tax-funded subsidies to get private investors to fund projects they wouldn’t have chosen otherwise. All these tax dollars pouring into new projects allow the administration to brag about creating jobs and producing stuff, which sounds good in a campaign speech, regardless of whether the end consumers value these things as the best use of scarce resources.

From a purely practical standpoint, the federal government cannot help but be a terrible entrepreneur because it is immune from economic losses. The American people are legally prohibited from opting out of their payments to the government as they are allowed to do with any other organization. As such, the government can spend decades on wasteful projects of little to no value and face no direct economic consequences. On top of that, the lack of feedback can allow the government’s operations to drift further away from reality as scarce resources go wasted and consumer needs go unmet.

Entrepreneurship is an essential part of a growing economy. But the wealth creation brought about by entrepreneurship is only truly possible with the freedom and feedback under private property. The quasi entrepreneurship taken on by the government in the president’s economic agenda siphons scarce resources away from more valuable uses and into projects protected from the critical feedback of economic losses. Policies like this aren’t going to “restore the American Dream”; they’re the very thing killing it.

I used to think I was pretty much just a regular person, but I was born white, into a two-parent household which now, whether I like it or not, makes me privileged, a racist, and responsible for slavery.

I am a fiscal and moral conservative, which by today's standards, makes me a fascist because I plan, I budget, and support myself.

I went to Grammar School and have always held a job. But I now find out that I am not here because I earned it, but because I was "advantaged". I am heterosexual, which according to gay folks, now makes me a homophobe. I am not a Muslim, which now labels me as an infidel.

I am older than 70, making me a useless dinosaur who doesn't understand Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or Snapchat.

I think, and I reason, and I doubt most of what the 'mainstream' media tells me, which makes me a Right-wing conspiracy nut.

I am proud of my heritage and our inclusive culture, making me a xenophobe.

I believe in hard work, fair play, and fair reward according to each individual's merits, which today makes me an anti-socialist.

I believe our system guarantees freedom of effort - not freedom of outcome or subsidies which must make me a borderline sociopath.

I believe in the defense and protection of my nation for and by all citizens, now making me a militant.

I am proud of our flag, what it stands for, and the many who died to let it fly, so I stand during our National Anthem - so I must be a radical.

Please help me come to terms with the new me because I'm just not sure who I am anymore.

Funny - it all took place over the last decade!

As if all this nonsense wasn't enough to deal with, now I don't even know which toilet to use... and these days I gotta go more frequently!

Turns out it was not halos. When Generative Fill was working on Rocks or on Clouds, it used some random areas of lighter and darker clouds and sometimes a lighter area looked like a halo. The solution was to use the lasso tool and draw a circle area around the place that looked like a halo and to run Generative Fill again and it would slightly modify the clouds within that area making sure that all the edges matched up with other clouds so it all looked natural.

I did go though the video and had to do a segment at a time and to repeat it over and over until I got it. But the end result was that it had very little effect on this image. That's when I decided to let Generative Fill do its thing.

Thanks for looking that up. It's not exactly Photoshop 101, but I was able to understand it - eventually.

Here is another result where I looked for halo looking places. What you will notice are that some clouds now have changed a bit and even some rocks changed too.