A high-tech question for Kerry and Bush

[Wells]

Here's the question:

What do you think about Plasma and LCD-screen technologies?

Kerry would answer something like this:

Well, they're good national energy policy. They take less energy to use, produce and ship. They're easier on the eyes, less eye strain, a health benefit, very important. They improve productivity in office work. They're easier to recycle. Cathode ray tubes have lead and mercury.

Bush would answer something like this:

Well, I like 'em, They're good, especially for games like Need 4 Speed and Revenge Commandos. It's really cool to shoot the bad guys that hate our freedom, and to drive really fast.



Plasma and LCD (liquid cristal display) industries will ultimately replace cathode ray tubes. This is jobs creation with multiple benefits. What's Kerry position on this technology?

[noahmijo]

1. I see Kerry as being highly pro-technology

Being that he wants to use it to help reduce administrative costs in healthcare, and he's pro-stem cell research and he's all about investing in technology for our military and first responders.....I doubt he'd protest the use of technology on the consumer side much.

I think he'd say something very similar to what you think he'd say.

[jjmalonejr]

2. Why does a president need a "position" on these technologies?

I don't get it. Is there a policy question in there?

[Wells]

3. Carter energy policy

President Carter's Weatherization Tax Credit Program initiated a revolution in home construction standards. The housing industry took a hit with the high inflation of that era. New home starts were at a low point and the national economy was in a Recession.

People had to maintain their homes rather than move to sprawling suburbia. New insulation technologies evolved that made such moves less a good investment. Innumerable older homes were upgraded rather than neglected, made more comfortable, cleaner, healthier, more valuable, especially in inner-city neighborhoods.

Reagan cancelled the program in 1982, but the wisdom of energy conservation was by then unstoppable, creating many new industries and jobs; even influencing architecture and city planning philosophy.

The Carter Program is a good example of what energy policy can do.

Bush will only play games with Plasma screens. He will not promote conservation because the point of corporate consumerism is to make the consumer more dependent upon their product, not less dependent.

Hydrogen is Bush's primary automobile technology policy because GM knows it won't work.