This is what has been bothering a great many of us…the misguided idea that some things…or for Republicans…most things are best handled by private enterprise - If only President Obama would allow more drilling, eliminate regulations we could see $2 per gallon prices.
Republicans, to be considered worthy of that party affiliation in good standing have to convince everyone that they firmly think that the economy can be fixed with more tax cuts for the rich, that TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS is an awesome economic concept and that drilling for oil can make gasoline prices so cheap and plentiful if only the government would stop protecting the environment, let oil companies do what is needed; which is drill, baby drill when in reality our energy policy has very little effect on the price of gasoline and that we have already increased oil production to unprecedented levels and it has not lower the price one bit. We know these price fluctuations are cause by speculators who are NOT REGULATED,
We as a country have been going in this GOVERNMENT IS THE PROBLEM direction for a few decades now; it is the result of a relentless effort on the part of Republicans to vilify anything government, to sing the praises of pure capitalism and to institute all these measures and laws that would take away regulations, deprive government of revenue and in essence, render governance and democracy useless.
It is not an accident or a noble motivation; it isn’t even an ideological commitment but a pure desire to have GREED as the engine that makes our society move.
This idea of privatization is impractical in many cases, and the reason is that the profit takes a great chunk of the cost of everything. Sure, when you have something operated by the government there might be some waste and even some corruption, but it pales in comparison to the amount that would otherwise go to profits.
A very good example of this is Health Care…when you have a middle man like the insurance companies that don’t really perform any function, offer any services or actually help cure and treat the sick but instead exist as parasites skimming great portions of the overall costs of healthcare.
Or you could also have price gouging by monopolies or by special considerations like patents. A terrible example of this is how pharmaceutical companies have astronomical prices for some life saving medicines.
On the other hand we can see clearly how government is able to run some programs successfully…and no doubt better than if it was in private hands.
One very successful program that the government not only had success but saved the jobs of millions of Americans in the process is the American Automobile Manufacturer’s bailout. As Jed Lewison reports:
“DETROIT — General Motors, which nearly collapsed from the weight of its debts two years ago before reorganizing in a government-sponsored bankruptcy, said Thursday that it earned $4.7 billion in 2010, the most in more than a decade.
It was the first profitable year since 2004 for G.M., which became publicly traded in November, ending a streak of losses totaling about $90 billion.
In addition, G.M. said 45,000 union workers would receive profit-sharing checks averaging $4,300, the most in the company’s history.”
Guess who said this sort of turnaround would be impossible? That's right, none other than John Boehner, in June of 2009 as well as the leading Presidential Candidate Romney: “Government is the problem” is a highly misleading and misguided Reagan concept
Much to the chagrin of Republican-Teahadists who live by the Reagan Mantra that “Government is the problem” is that there are some very successful examples of how successful some programs are: One of which has been in existence for more than 75 years and is still viable, solvent and providing a safety net for a group of people who would otherwise be destitute if it didn’t exist: SOCIAL SECURITY.
Of course, if Republican-Tehadists had their way they would eliminate Social Security altogether; along with PUBLIC EDUCATION, Consumer Protection, Osha labor laws, and even all public utilities. It is called: PRIVATIZATION MADNESS.
Why are Republican-Teahadists obsessed with eliminating Social Security? Very simple: it is the cornerstone of FDR’s New Deal and it is still working and will do so for a couple of more decades to come. Funny too that the Social Security Fund has had a surplus all these years and the Government has been dipping into it…now when it is time for replacing what they took out; the Republicans claim that it is in financial trouble…why don’t we pay it back? Why don’t we give back to senior citizens what they put into the system? That would be too easy, too SOCIALIST and it would also prove Regan’s axiom wrong.
SO YOU THINK THE FREE ENTERPRISE SYSTEM IS THE BEST ECONOMIC MODEL – SO DO I
AND YOU THINK THERE SHOULD NOT BE ANY LAWS OR REGULATIONS TO INTERFERE WITH PRIVATE ENTERPRISE? – I DISAGREE
Most Americans will agree on the first point: that the free enterprise system is the best economic model. How to implement or how much to regulate it is where most of us part ways.
If you ask anyone if the water and sewer systems in their city should be in private hands they will tell you no. If you ask if a public utility like the phone company or the power company should be in private hands most people will tell you it should not. We agree on the implications of such privatization…thousands of water and sewer lines running underneath our streets or 20 telephone or electric posts with wires running in our alleys that resemble a bowl of spaghetti.
When you speak to a person in favor of pure capitalism he or she will tell you that the government is too big, that the government should not interfere or make laws that regulate or should make it harder to conduct business. What they are not telling you is that there are certain basic needs for government to protect consumers, certain health and safety concerns that government has been entrusted to safeguard. Such is the case with safety inspections of our foodstuff and our medicines.
We have laws that protect the workers from unnecessary risks that would take precautions to assure the safety and good health of those workers…well, we all know that if the rich and the corporations are allowed not to have these, to them human life and the health of their employees is of no significance as long as there is a profit. We have safety laws and agencies that make sure it is safe for Americans to fly on commercial airlines.
But do you think that government has some responsibility for having a say in how a business can conduct itself? Are we such purists about capitalism that we actually would then turn government into a tool to allow such disparities?
A good example of this would be unfair competition; if you have a national chain with thousands of locations and they come into a small town, open a facility in the outskirts, in some shopping mall by the Interstate and this chain then makes it a point to sell everything in the store at 20 or 30% less than they are charging in the other stores across the country with the intention of driving out of business the already existing ma and pa store downtown; then that is unfair competition.
Wal-Mart is another example of this. While they are the largest of all the U.S. employers, they are also the worst in compensation and benefits. Because they also buy in such large quantities they can realize a great deal of leverage in negotiating purchase prices. If you also add into the equation that they will come into a mall and open up a store and will run it at a loss, offering outrageously low prices that will guarantee mom and pop grocery or clothing store downtown that little village to close.
I also think that there are some functions that government offers that will be safer and less risky than if it were in private hands…Social Security, Health Care, retirement accounts and unemployment insurance…these safety nets could not possibly be in the hands of private enterprise. To do so would be to invite disaster. We all know what happened to our 401’s and our pensions just recently during the stock market disaster.
Wake up people, it is not black or white, there are many tonalities of grey. Capitalism is the best system but it has to have regulations or greed will take over.
WHAT IS DESTROYING AMERICA IS NOT SOCIALISM AND CHRISTIAN EXTREMISM
What is destroying America is GREED and CHRISTIAN EXTREMISM.
But I could see one major flaw, one misguided assumption on the part of many, and that is as a result of having bought into all this Republican-Teahadist effort to vilify SOCIALISM. Many people in America are not just scared of the word even though they don’t understand the implications. Most people in America if asked today think that SOCIALISM is evil and something we should repudiate. Yet, if asked whether Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Public Education, the Armed Forces should be in private hands they recoil and say they oppose that.
There are certain aspects of our economy that could not possibly be in private hands. There are for example “NATURAL MONOPOLIES” as would be the case of electric companies, water and sewer and the like. Could you envision 10 different electric companies competing against one another and the electric wires running behind your house on those poles in the alley? Or could you have 10 different sewer and water companies tearing up your street to lay down ten different pipelines?
Conversely, could we possibly hand over the Pentagon to private enterprise? Would our country be safe? Would serving your country become a matter of financial convenience rather than patriotism? How about education? We have seen how voucher programs and privatization of schools work…for the detriment of the poor…only those with the financial means get an education while the rest of us remain near-illiterate. Oh, I forget that is something the wealthy prefer because an uneducated populace is easier to lie to and to control.
I would say to any person thinking this way: You have bought into the Republican-Teahadist vilification of the word SOCIALISM, you have fallen victim of their misguided and evil agenda and it is time you wake up and smell that coffee of yours because it is not the Socialists who are against women, labor union, Social Security, public education, and fighting gays, it is narrow-minded, fanatical Christians (and others) who cling on to one erroneous interpretation of the Scriptures.
If anything, please remember that the extreme right has gained so much ground in the past thirty years that those things we used to consider far-right radical are now mainstream. If anything, our country has gone too far to the right and it is now on the verge of losing those very SOCIALIST programs that allow for Americans to have a safety net…one that we pay into, one that we are ENTITLED TO.
In this world of theirs, in this America of theirs; there will be only two social classes: a very limited percentage of white super wealthy who either live in McMansions in heavily guarded gated communities or abroad and comprise no more than 1% of the population and the rest of us working our asses off in sweat shops to make them richer. It is not likely that they would even want to live in America because the rift-raft poor make it very unpleasant for them.
Their intent is to eliminate all social safety nets including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid…they want to do away with public education and with labor unions. It is in their agenda to also eliminate any kind of safeguard to the safety of the products we consume by doing away with regulatory agencies like the FDA and the EPA because these are intrusive and interfere with the free enterprise system. Child labor laws and minimum wage gone; and so will the number of hours worked per week and a return to the 19th century workplace. (Gingrich says we should fire janitors and replace them with school kids)
We have seen so far three phases of this agenda; first, when Obama became President the Republicans opposed, delayed, sabotaged any efforts by the Democrats and the President to fix the mess the Republicans left after Bush by becoming “THE PARTY OF NO”. Then on the second phase they concentrated all their efforts to gain a majority in the House of Representatives by injecting enormous amounts of “anonymous” campaign contributions and advertising…all of which coming from the very wealthy and the corporate special interests. Phase three is well underway; it is a pervasive and unconstitutional effort by newly elected Teahadist-Republicans to dismantle Labor Unions and all the social safety nets. Does Wisconsin sound familiar to you? This also includes gerrymandering and wide scale voter disenfranchising.
Government in their minds should only exist to enforce morality and impose culture war issue, to empower religions to the point that America would be more like a theocracy than a democracy. Clearly the Republican’s aim is also to limit the use government as a means to carry out a culture war agenda by adopting anti-abortion, anti birth control, anti-gay measures and even criminalizing these. The government would then be limited to push down our throats Fundamentalist-Evangelical dogma and worst of all white supremacy concepts…that which they embrace: That WASP is the only legitimate American.
I am a fervent supporter of FREE ENTERPRISE and realize that it is an economic system that works but it must have regulations and a sprinkle of SOCIALISM or it will not work. It won’t work because there are certain things that can’t be in private hands or you risk interjecting greed…and greed has no conscience.
SOURCES: http://www.dailykos.com/
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