--- Erik Reuter <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Mar 11, 2004 at 06:07:44PM -0800, Gautam > Mukunda wrote: > > > But it's not a real parallel, because Halliburton > wins those contracts > > on a free market basis. > > I think he has a point, Gautam. Everyone competes > for government money. > The government could cut off all funding for public > radio, or give it to > some conservative public radio organization (or send > it to NASA, or or > to DOE, or some local pork, etc.). So, NPR is > competing in much the same > way anyone else competes for federal grants, which > bears much similarity > to competing for federal contracts. > > Erik Reuter http://www.erikreuter.net/
If NPR's _only_ public funding was from federal grants that it won competitively, that would be fine. But it doesn't - it gets special allocations and special privileges that aren't on the open market. It competes not through bidding, but through the political process - through getting Congressmen to vote in its favor. That's not competition. Halliburton isn't winning federal _grants_, it's winning contracts from the federal government through open bids, pretty much in the same way it wins them from private companies for which it contracts. ===== Gautam Mukunda [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Freedom is not free" http://www.mukunda.blogspot.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Search - Find what you�re looking for faster http://search.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
