SOUTH DAKOTA STRAIGHT TALK

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have more in common today than just being bridge partners and America’s two wealthiest people.

They seem to be doing something that America’s beleaguered automakers are incapable of doing – looking ahead, innovating, and thinking out of the box.

William Henry Gates III on Monday filed for patents on a new type of electromagnetic engine and plasma injectors. The engine combines attributes of the internal combustion engine and power generators. It is believed that these technological developments both decrease pollution and increase energy efficiency.

Meanwhile Warren Buffett has purchased a 10% stake in BYD “an obscure Chinese battery, mobile phone, and electric car company.” Buffett who has been more than shy of buying technology (he by passed the dot com bubble) preferring instead staples, doesn’t lay down cash on emotion and hunch. His investment requires solid fundamentals.

Gates and Buffett unlike many in Congress and the Big 3 understand we have a global economy. With the communication and transportation we have today, there is no economic isolationism.

While our government is subsidizing failure at the Big 2, these two captains of American industry are looking to the future with real prospect of success.

Success means profit. Government edict, throwing good money after bad, and over socialization of commerce is not the answer. Government penalizing reward means that no one will take the risk.

Free Enterprise unfettered from excessive government control is the answer.

The association of Buffet and Gates is well known. Warren Buffet served on the National United Way Board with Gates’ mother who introduced her son to Buffet. Gates serves on Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Board of Directors and Buffet has left most of his fortune (the gift valued at the time at about $30 Billion) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

When these two birds get together Green usually means more than the environment.