coreymull

I usually like Greenwald and in general agree with his argument here. But I sure as hell don't like the ad-homing of Lamo as a mental patient and convicted felon. Not relevant, Glenn.

Any interest in remote applicants?

Airlines wouldn't exist in the "free market". Are you arguing that air travel has no net value?

I mean, fine, but this is the case with just about any form of social program. I'm not in danger of needing food stamps, so logic dictates I'd rather have the $20 a year or so I contribute to that program. I don't like bombs, but about 5-10% of my income goes to pay for them.

You're forced to pay for all kinds of stuff. Might as well get some social value out of it (like more cohesive families)

I'd be interested in seeing if there's been any effect on Swedish entrepreneurship resulting from generous family leave.

Obviously I'm not talking about high-powered startups here, but lifestyle businesses, freelancers, that sort of thing. Probably hard to draw out causation, but worth thinking about too.

Cross-subsidy is a part of life in a civilized society.

It's not quite as simple as glibly saying that Americans can just lower their standards of living and walk away from stable employment to take paternity leave.

Also, people don't just make choices out of the ether - people's range of choices are influenced by the policy environment. It holds in Sweden too - Swedes didn't make the choice to stay at home until they were given the choice, at which point they did.

At any rate, even if Americans are violently opposed to taking parental leave, surely a non-zero number of men would take it - what's the harm in guaranteeing that men have more chance to bond with their children?

This is exactly what I wanted to say, but was too lazy to type up.

And how is it not? It's a car that, in normal use, will use no gasoline. That's a big deal now, and an even bigger deal if some sort of cap and trade/carbon tax is put into place.

But, unlike the Leaf, Tesla and other pure electrics, it is capable of driving long distances because of the gas engine.

It's the first electric car without "range anxiety".

Sounds like your beef isn't with the car, but with policymakers who are too cowardly to put a price on carbon emissions. Incorporating externalities, I think the cost-benefit analysis of the Volt becomes much more balanced.

The writer of the piece is also the writer of The Truth About Cars - a notoriously anti-GM blog.

The Volt definitely has faults, but it's a brand-spanking-new technology - what do people expect?

Part of the problem is that "American Morning" is not that much better than "American Idol". In fact, I think I'd rather watch the latter; at least it's somewhat entertaining.