Tony Fadell Quotes
Your television has changed, your phone has changed. Why don't these other things you need, that the government tells you you must have in your home, change?
Pierce, David. "Nest Protect: the iPod father's crusade to reinvent the smoke detector." The Verge, 8 Oct. 2013.
The Great Depression, even more so than the Great Recession, shattered the faith of most people in the Capitalistic system as it was then operating. Conservatives like Stimson believed that reform could be achieved without diminishing the rights of the individual vis a vis the state. To a great extent he was right, but ironically, it tool a liberal like FDR and a Democratic Congress to make the necessary reforms the Republicans would not make and at the same time, not go so far as to reduce the freedom of individual action protected by the Constitution. Arguably, there are several areas where Americans have much more freedom in modern times than they did in 1929 when Hoover’s inaction brought on the Great Depression so severely. Today, minorities, women, dissidents, religions all have much more freedom that in 1929.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910. Bribery of Congress and other legislatures was very common at that time. In modern times, bribery has become less common, with the function being assumed by campaign contributions. Relative to the cost of living, these “prices” in the modern era are far greater than the bribery prices of the 19th Century.
In addition the companies that are being protected suffer by not getting competitive and not utilizing the most modern and most efficient techniques. Even construction workers are hurt as protected companies do not modernize their facilities as often and build new plants.
This would seem a much easier solution to the problem of monopoly holders charging outrageous prices than trying to fix profits or lay a large tax on the profits. However, few governments ever do this. In many cases the patent holders control or heavily influence the government. There is in addition, in most Judeo-Christian societies an assumption that most people have a moral sense and will not take undue advantage of customers just because they have the power to do so. And in the most egregious cases of monopoly pricing there were many other patents where the inventors were not gouging the consumers. It is always been the minority of businesses that have taken gross advantage of patent monopolies. However at some periods, where there was an oligarchy, all the companies in an area abused their patent monopolies together. An example would be the pharmaceutical industry of the early 21st century.
He and his brother are the largest political contributors in the United States, so they have enormous influence on Republicans (they only make political contributions to conservative organizations).
Anthony Michael Fadell is an American engineer, innovator, designer, entrepreneur, founder, coach, and active investor. He is the inventor of the iPod, co-inventor of the iPhone, and founder and former CEO of Nest Labs.
