Can RED save the Economy

[Scott Crawley]

I was inclined to respond to the thread title initially as most of you have, but then I would have missed his larger point and it is one that is well made. The responses here are certainly valid but I think Andrew is right. To be a breakout success a company needs to be bold and innovative. That means investing in aggressive development and all of those R&D dollars are at risk. Sure business exists to make money, but if Jim's example teaches us anything it should be that business takes more than capital. It takes BALLS.

Business as usual does nothing more than fulfill the status quo. It meets basic needs. It maintains. It creates nothing new. It does not grow. As creative professionals we should recognize that to to thrive and grow we need to create something new and different. Hollywood needs to hear what Steven is saying. Safe is boring.

If you are averse to risk make bread.

[Anthony Gratl]

It is interesting to think that we continue to try and measure our worth by dollars and 'economy'.

'The economy' is a major factor in our current behaviour models.

The notion that endless and ever expanding consumption can continue is absurd. The planet isn't growing, people, just our population.

You cannot have infinite growth in a finite world. Anyone reading scientific data reports about the planetary systems these days?

We have grave problems as a result of 'the economy'. I would hope that this is finally being acknowledged, regardless of how long one's ostrich neck is.

So perhaps our ideas and conversations should start talking about genuine sustainability.

Shifting resources and infrastructure and human capacity to make life here on earth for all of us humans sustainable.

[Anthony Gratl]

Business as usual does nothing more than fulfill the status quo. As creative professionals we should recognize that to to thrive and grow we need to create something new and different. Hollywood needs to hear what Steven is saying. Safe is boring.

If you are averse to risk make bread.

Business as usual no longer meets basic needs at all. It's destroying our ability to meet basic needs. We've been in the realm of the frivilous for a long time.

My sense is it's our job as creative professionals to start making films to continue to raise public consciousness. That would be both new and different, and to my mind is the most difficult task of the creative process.

[George Butterfield]

Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".
All levels of Government from Local Town Councils to the White House are fleecing the taxpayer. It is all over the news and is common knowledge. RED is powerless, a paradigm shift is necessary. We need a Benjamin Franklin. We need strong leaders who care more about America than they care about their Government Job. With almost Fifty Percent of the Population living off the taxation of the other half, America may well be doomed. "China owns the Moon!"

[Gavin Greenwalt]

Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".

Yes. Because 4% of people used to be lazy leaches and then another 6% magically decided around 2008 at the same time to stop wanting to work.

I leave a Benjamin Franklin quote for you on all of those useless people living off the backs of others:

For my own Part, when I am employed in serving others, I do not look upon myself as conferring Favours, but as paying Debts. In my Travels, and since my Settlement, I have received much Kindness from Men, to whom I shall never have any Opportunity of making the least direct Return. And numberless Mercies from God, who is infinitely above being benefited by our Services. Those Kindnesses from Men, I can therefore only Return on their Fellow Men; and I can only shew my Gratitude for these mercies from God, by a readiness to help his other Children and my Brethren. For I do not think that Thanks and Compliments, tho’ repeated weekly, can discharge our real Obligations to each other, and much less those to our Creator.

That means investing in aggressive development and all of those R&D dollars are at risk. Sure business exists to make money, but if Jim's example teaches us anything it should be that business takes more than capital. It takes BALLS.

I agree to some degree. But customers usually don't reward companies for this. Apple has made a killing off of incremental refinements on other's extensive R&D. And for most industries the margins are so thin that you'll never pay off your R&D.

[Anthony Gratl]

Big Government is what is destroying the Economy. Too many people living off those few who actually produce. Many Graduates from College with no useful skills who then have to become employed by the Government. Quantitative easing which is destroying the currency and your future and your "investments".
All levels of Government from Local Town Councils to the White House are fleecing the taxpayer. It is all over the news and is common knowledge. RED is powerless, a paradigm shift is necessary. We need a Benjamin Franklin. We need strong leaders who care more about America than they care about their Government Job. With almost Fifty Percent of the Population living off the taxation of the other half, America may well be doomed. "China owns the Moon!"

The narrowmindedness of this rhetoric only serves to continue the manufactured fight between middle and working class people. You should consider that you may be reading from the wrong script George.
Pay attention to what's happening around you, not what the media tells you. Your media is serving you that fight.

[Matt Gottshalk]

Well this thread is going places.....

[Jon Jones]

Saving the economy means everyone, from the little guy on REDuser, to the Federal Govmt spends less than what they make. Debt vs. profit. Can we expect the government to magically start spending less? Yeah cause their real good at that... No, it's a simple Micro Econ. template, that starts with each and every household spending less than what they make and saving a percentage of what they earn. And part 2 of that is that we have to vote people into government that want to, and have a record of spending less. RED is pulling their weight, in this task. This is the reason many people are attracted to RED, because they lead the way, they are out in the front, and doing it in style!

[Jon Jones]

Well this thread was going nowhere as the title was being typed, lol

[Emanuel A.]

I imagine that Jim Jannard lost a huge amount of money in the initial years on R&D....

Jay, I don't think so. Even if only he can tell, there have been deposits in advance :-) He has just managed them in the smartest way in order to finance it.