Posted by
Redhead on Monday, September 28, 2009 11:02:41 PM
Thomas Edison was an @$$hole.
Thomas Edison may go down in history as a great inventor and benefactor of mankind. But the truth was he engaged in rather shady business and marketing practices, was accused on many counts of stealing others patents and inventions, and was only interested in how the inventions would benefit him. He apparently can also lay claim to the End User License Agreement as well. And he said that his favorite film was “The Birth of a Nation.”
Edison’s work and company depended on Direct Current. They often competed with the idea of Alternating Current put forth by others. In his marketing for DC, Edison became involved in the development of an electric chair. Using AC, of course, to demonstrate its deadly effects. He also publically electrocuted Topsy the Elephant using Alternating Current in a now familiar use of scare tactics to discourage people from using the rival standard.
In 1884, Edison employed one Nikola Tesla with the promise that if he made improvements to his Direct Current generation plants, Edison would pay him $50,000. When Tesla succeeded and asked for payment (over $1,000,000 at today’s rates) Edison refused, telling the immigrant, “When you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke.” Tesla quit.
Tesla eventually went to work for George Westinghouse. There he continued his work on Alternating Currents and helped Westinghouse to eventually win the contract to light the 1893 World’s Fair. This was to mark the triumph of Alternating Current of Westinghouse over the Direct Current of Edison.
In the 1980’s and 1990’s Westinghouse sold off most of its electrical and manufacturing assets. All that remains of Westinghouse is CBS. Yes, that CBS. There is a small division – the Westinghouse Electric Company which basically just maintains the licenses of Westinghouse and sells them to other companies.
Edison’s Edison Electric Company eventually became Edison General Electric and later merged with another company to become just General Electric. And that brings us to today.
Around the start of this millennium GE began seeing the green within the green movement. They made over 6 Billion (!) dollars from their Ecomagination lines in 2004. They should have easily doubled that by today. And now they can qualify for government subsidies under the Cash for Appliances Program.
Today GE is using the power of the government to beat any other rivals. In only the last few months they have been very busy. Of course this should come as little surprise to anyone who was watching because the current CEO, Jeff Immelt is also on Obama’s Economic Recovery Board. The foxes are guarding the henhouse. Why was Bush ridiculed for having Energy Companies weigh in on Energy Policy?
GE is also part of the United States Climate Action Partnership, a group of “businesses and leading environmental organizations that have come together to call on the federal government to quickly enact strong national legislation to require significant reductions of greenhouse gas emissions.” And yes, GE is also part of Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management fund. Oh yeah, did I mention that GE has started up its own Environmental Offset division?
Of course, the GE ties to the current administration and their quest to use the government to their advantage doesn’t stop there.
GE owns - lock, stock, and barrel (is that racist?) - MSNBC. The secret behind MSNBC’s liberal bias is well known and well documented. This link should come as little surprise to those of you who have read this far.
It should also come as no surprise that Immelt has spoken out supporting the many Obama pronouncements, no matter how farfetched.
GE has also gotten themselves qualified as a bank under their GE Finance arm. This means they managed to get some of those Bank Bailout funds. They qualified as a bank, without having to meet some of the other restrictions as a bank. How? Only this administration knows.
So what’s next? How about GE’s new Healthymagination line? GE stands to make B-B-Billions off of healthcare legislation. It’s seems wherever you turn lately, there’s GE. How could they know? Oh, yeah, Immelt is on the Economic Recovery Board.
Oh, and just out last month, GE is getting a personal introduction by Obama to Russia. It truly is WHO you know!
Now, let me just close up by saying that I am a fan of science fiction, especially the Cyberpunk genre. In this genre, the idea of corporations having actual Warfare against each other is fairly common, complete with spies, armies, kidnappings, and assassins. I would prefer that kind of world. But why go to all that trouble when you can just get yourself a government agent to act for you?
Most liberals would read this and say, “That’s the trouble with Big Corporations! They need to be regulated better!”
This Conservative says: That’s the trouble with having Big Government! If the politicians didn’t have this kind of power, there would be much less Corporate influence in our politics. The government needs to be regulated better!
You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead,
but Thomas Edison was an @$$hole.