<p>Topic gets better and better.</p>
<p>the funster had the misfortune to take a course taught by miserable old Howard Zinn at Big and Ugly. Don't remember too much other than: America Sucks mumble grumble America Sucks more bs America Sucks horsecrap America Sucks.
Good course, I learned a lot.</p>
<p>D'Yer Maker, your professor hailed from a bygone age. What, no mention of prenups, stock options, nor tech startups?</p>
<p>Hmmm,</p>
<p>For some reason I kept reading Captain Obvious as Captain Oblivious. I think I like being Captian Oblivious better.</p>
<p>I used T. Boone Pickens as example because he has truckloads of cash and is excersing his freedom to speak publicly at the same time. It is also a current example everyone can relate to.</p>
<p>I did not say he had "privileged beginnings." </p>
<p>The platform he creates for himself to speak from, funded with lots of cold, hard, cash, allows him more freedom to get his message across. If some guy on the corner with a cardboard sign spoke of the exact same plan, no one would care, or listen. Speech does not matter much if no one listens.</p>
<p>Finally, I did not imply one should go to a pristigious school only to seek wealth. To use the old cliche, it just opens more doors. Use those doors to do what you want.</p>
<p>@ Periwinkle: As with most decisions made in college, I used the worst criteria for choosing classes. I chose that particular section of Finance because the professor was a relatively young guy with a European accent that all the girls swooned over...meaning that my section would be likely to have more girls. When the swarthy young turk pulled out that gem, I was sitting in a sea of outrage.</p>
<p>College students are the worst consumers of goods and services EVER. I think I was typical of most college students now and then in that I regularly chose classes based on who else I would take them with. I actively sought out professors who gave out LESS work. The class would cheer when a professor would cancel a class and not make it up. But that was nothing. We'd REGULARLY cut our 1 o'clock classes (classes that we were financing with student loans) in order to watch "General Hospital" -- and that was AFTER Luke had married Laura (the girl he had raped several years before) and Scorpio had thwarted the absurd (even by our low standards) weather machine! A weather machine? What was with that anyway?!?!</p>
<p>You all realize Pickens is just trying to turn a profit, right?</p>
<p>These ad campaigns are just a way to sway public opinion enough for him to start an all out building frenzy partially subsidized by your tax dollars. </p>
<p>Do you really think he gives a damn about the future of America?</p>
<p>It just seems like too many people are buying into this guy.</p>
<p>Why do we need Pickens? Why not set up something like the TVA? It is still around and supplies energy efficiently and reliably.</p>
<p>The Tucson Valley Authority might not provide energy so efficiently as the other TVA. Water isn't everywhere. Nor wind. Nor sunlight. But all of them are around and need to be exploited in those places where they're found in abundance.</p>
<p>As for Pickens' motivations, there are few people in this world I would trust more in terms of identifying worthwhile enterprises and exploiting natural resources than an entrepreneur who has made so much money from oil that, if he chose to convert his wealth into Krugerrands, he couldn't fit it all into seven 55-gallon barrels PLUS the coffin he's likely to be occupying inside of the next 10 years.</p>
<p>Henry Ford didn't give a damn about America, but we have government-paved roads because he convinced the nation to provide infrastructure for his horseless carriage contraptions. The fact that he had his self-interest at heart or that he profited from it doesn't mean that paved roads were bad for America. Maybe...just maybe...people agree with Pickens because they were already disposed to agree with him, not because they've been persuaded (let alone hoodwinked) by him.</p>
<p>What's more...you're hijacking a thread that's already been hijacked.</p>
<p>This can be moved: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-cafe/%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-cafe/</a></p>
<p>How quickly this post changes subjects is just proof the original question/complaint is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Anyway, the TVA was not just limited to hydro or coal based electricity production. They dabbled in nuclear for awhile, but Three Mile happened, and then Chernobyl, and production of nuclear power facilities ended. I am suprised so many enviromentalist groups are against nuclear power, as it is clean, safe, sustainable, and not too costly.</p>
<p>This ends my posting here, as i am ending my short career as a post hijacker.</p>
<p>You finally post something that makes sense (your take on Nuclear Power is spot on) and now you're leaving...</p>
<p>This board and the world will be a lesser place.</p>
<p>Das Vedanya, comrade, das vedanya.</p>
<p>I smell something fishy...</p>