My take on government involvement has been its appropriate if private interests (companies, foundations etc) are either unwilling or unable to step in, or when its in the interests of the public - transportation, medicare or social security are good examples of this.
Frankly its a pity that when companies go begging for government supports - subsidies, loans, special tax breaks etc., that the government says fine, but you have to assign a percentage of the company's stocks to a government run trust fund. This way if the government has to pay out, in taxes, subsidies etc., their get their investment back. It would also give the government a good bit of leverage in a variety of cases, think civil rights or pollution etc. larry On Tue, 29 Mar 2005 09:53:32 -0600, Gruss Gott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Kevin wrote: > > Unfair competition is unfair. Fair competition is fine. > > > > > > > 2.) Believes that government is the best solution to most social problems. > > > > It's not a bad solution. Grass roots (neighbors, non-profits, > > churches, etc) are good too but because of their circle of influence > > > > Nobody wants to be on the dole, but sometimes companies like Enron > > just fuck you over. > > > > I've found a few liberals! > > That being said you make a few good points; the best probably being > the concept of market failure. For all of the good that the market > does, it can and does fail and that's where gov't should step in. > > For example, "externalities" occur when costs of production aren't > priced by the market and so aren't considered during consumption. A > good example is power plant emissions: there's a reasonable > expectation that this has a cost to society, but it's not factored > into the energy price. > > HOWEVER! I don't think Enron is a case of that. Enron was simply a > case of bad men behaving badly and they should be no different that > any other grifter: they should be identified, captured, and punished. > > And, while government can do good, it's mostly responsible for bad (in > human history) because it's essentially unregulated. The genius of > capitalism is that it takes a fundamentally negative trait of human > nature, greed, and turns it into a wealth building mechanism. > > Government also has greed but no market forces to keep it in check. > There is a certain point of power which, once crossed, forever > corrupts those in government. I'm not certain where that point is for > the USA, but I'd say we're as close now as we've ever been: which is > why you see religion becoming a factor in politics. > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Find out how CFTicket can increase your company's customer support efficiency by 100% http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=49 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:152064 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
