On 9/2/05, Dan Minette <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > So, what are the other choices, and which one do you advocate?
I'm not a policy expert of any sort, but it makes sense to me to prevent price gouging during an emergency. Seems to me we have a long tradition of that sort of policy. Price controls haven't worked well -- I recall the days of anti-inflationary wage and prices freezes fairly well. I certainly remember gas rationing. As for accountability, I believe that businesses must be accountable to their stockholders and the public, in different ways. Different industries at different times deserve different degrees of nationalization. I think it is terrible that our health care system isn't nationalized enough to assure that everyone in the richest country in the world has basic medical care available. The petroleum industry doesn't have the immediate impact of health care, but it is critical, so I think it we are right to demand a high level of public accountability from it. Details, I don't know. But to let it wave in the winds of laissez fair economics seems crazy to me, given the level of short-term disruption that could be caused by wildly fluctuating prices. Gasoline price stability is important... I'll leave it to others to muse on how stable and how to achieve it, but I don't buy the argument that it can't or shouldn't be done. It dawns on me that this is a bit closer to home, literally and figuratively, for you. Nothing personal, but if your income goes up while people can't get to work and businesses fail because of gasoline price volatility and gouging, that doesn't seem right at all, since you'd be benefitting not from innovation or efficiency, but from the misery of others, caused by a natural disaster -- events that were out of your hands and out of theirs. Turning to where I do have a strong stake... nobody will insure my daughter because of her diabetes. She got a third-degree burn on her foot recently and has had a terrible time getting treatment. I still am not sure she won't lose the foot, which is infected. Meanwhile, the health care industry justifies this because they have to make a profit to stay in business. Sorry, daughter, but the accountants don't even plug you into the numbers. Oy. Nick -- Nick Arnett [EMAIL PROTECTED] Messages: 408-904-7198 _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
