On 9/2/05, Gautam Mukunda <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: If the government can control gasoline > allocations, then only the friends of the people in > power will get gasoline, and this is A Bad Thing. >
As compared to the present situation, in which the people in power and their friends here and abroad own the gasoline... companies. Let's see, is it better to have the petroleum industry accountable to: A. Their stockholders (a group that has a high overlap with the present administration and its friends), or B. All of the voters of the country? If those were really the only choices, I'd go with B, thank you, even if it is socialist. Smaller government with less intervention would have made New Orleans: A. More prepared, or B. Less prepared for a big hurricane? Do we even need to talk about why private industry didn't invest in better levees, for which the federal government had allocated funds, but which were cut due to the rising cost of the war. And now we're hearing further calls for non-intervention by government in a critical resource, petroleum. At what point do people figure out that excessive privatization leads to lousy investment in public infrastructure, which leads to disaster eventually? Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
