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Steve Rose

Steve Rose's picture
Minneapolis, MN
Commenter for
4 years 42 weeks

Recent Comments

Posted on 03/06/13 at 10:15 am in response to Why higher taxes on the wealthy are good for business

I will limit my comments to your assertions regarding the motivations of Henry Ford.

Because Ford was a shrewd businessman, what he had to say about labor relations needs to be viewed in light of the historical facts. In 1913, when Ford introduced the assembly line, his workers were skilled craftsmen; those workers quit. A Ford biographer noted, “So great was labor’s distaste for the new machine system that toward the close of 1913 every time the company wanted to add 100 men to...

Posted on 03/07/13 at 08:58 am in response to Why higher taxes on the wealthy are good for business

I find the recent lionization of Henry Ford as some sort of business progressive by President Obama and others to be more than a bit bizarre.

What Henry Ford did, he did for business. Ford himself estimated that his high wage reduced the number of new employees he had to hire and train by 200,000 per year. His wages were right for the time and for serving the demands of a booming market for a lot of low-priced vehicles. Yes, the Ford workers earned a high wage, but not due to...

Posted on 03/13/13 at 07:44 am in response to Why higher taxes on the wealthy are good for business

... was the Henry Ford model.

Responding to market forces, Ford doubled the daily wage of workers in the 1920s, and brutally opposed unionization of autoworkers in the 1930s. To some, this may indicate a mercurial Henry Ford, but both actions sprung from the same motivation - business growth and advantage over his competitors.

Though a noted racist and ardent anti-semite, Ford's close personal association and collaboration with Adolf Hitler was primarily about business too....

Posted on 02/25/13 at 07:07 am in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

“Even though a record number of Minnesotans have permits to carry firearms, only a tiny number ever have pulled the trigger in self-defense."

How many times has the presence of a gun deterred a crime without a trigger pull? We don't know. How many crimes have been deterred because criminals know that a prospective victim might be armed? We don't know. The only place that criminals can boldly proceed with impunity is in a Gun Free Zone.

Posted on 02/25/13 at 09:05 am in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

Having firsthand knowledge, and talking to others who have too, I personally know the number is not zero. You can guess zero; zero is good for you.

Posted on 02/25/13 at 09:08 am in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

Everyone benefits from the fact that a home intruder may be confronted by a resident with a gun.

I invite all who deny this fact to boldly mark their home with a sign assuring the public that it is a "Gun Free Zone".

Posted on 02/25/13 at 09:29 am in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

Other points of interest from the linked Strib column that shed a different light.

“Five instances of justifiable use of a firearm by a permit holder have been reported to the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) since 2003, although some recent self-defense shootings haven’t been counted.”

“The form used by law enforcement to provide information about gun permits has a field to report justifiable uses. However, in some cases, well-publicized justifiable shootings weren’...

Posted on 02/25/13 at 12:48 pm in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

If interested in ministry violence statistics, this site provides an aggregation, without an agenda nor conclusion:

http://www.carlchinn.com/Church_Security_Concepts.html

2012 was the deadliest year on record for churches. There were 75 killings from 135 incidents of deadly force. Places of worship are substantially more dangerous than schools....

Posted on 02/25/13 at 12:55 pm in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

Yes, and privacy for the parties involved.

Posted on 02/25/13 at 12:58 pm in response to Permit holders had 5 'justifiable' uses of guns ... in 9 years

Yet, no one seems to post such a sign on their house. I find this fact curious, in light of your argument.