rightwinger
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The world runs on individuals pursuing their separate interests. The great achievements of civilization have not come from government bureaus. Einstein didnt construct his theory under order from a bureaucrat. Henry Ford didnt revolutionize the automobile industry that way. In the only cases in which the masses have escaped from the kind of grinding poverty youre talking about, the only cases in recorded history, are where they have had capitalism and largely free trade.
If you want to know where the masses are worst off, its exactly in the kinds of societies that depart from that. So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear, that there is no alternative way so far discovered of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by the free-enterprise system. --Milton Friedman
CARPE DIEM: Milton Friedman Responds to Obama
Every re-distributive economy is an inhumane shithole, every single one of them. It's so fucking bad they have to build walls to keep anybody with a brain from fleeing. But that's the exact system embraced and adored by the "American" Left. They love a system that has a 100% Guaranteed fail rate and while they're living in the #1 economy in the world.
Insanity. Absolute fucking insanity.
This assumes that the essential argument is between free markets and socialism. It's not. Neither exists. Here is what does exist. A partnership between the private sector and government. Your rant doesn't explain what's good about things like the Hoover Dam and the national Interstate.
The private sector craves modern industrial infrastructure and a legal system to protect their property and enforce their contracts and [things like] FDIC insurance to protect their risk. The private sector lives off subsidies and bailouts. Profit makers crave government help, that's why the USA has built the largest lobbying system in the world.
You seem to be making a point around which there is very little controversy, namely that a successful economy must find a way to channel rather than block selfishness. Nobody is arguing for socialism. You've been captured by a talk radio straw man. We're trying to figure out how to build the Hoover Dam when no single market actor can afford to do it. We're trying to appraise the value of the government investment in commercial aviation and computer technology - and the level which capital depends on the modern industrial state, supplied by the public, made possible by taxation. Also your rant doesn't draw distinctions between the state controlled, re-distributive economy of Denmark - where people are free, happy and well educated - and China, the unfree place with whom the glorious American private sector does the most business.
Capitalism is heavily dependent on these freedom-hating nations for labor and raw material. WalMart and the American retail sector would not exist without communist China. Capitalism despises freedom in the following way: a free middle class brings terribly high labor costs, and they tend to impose a higher regulatory burden because they don't want corporations polluting their water. Investment Capital thrives in freedom-hating parts of the world. Do you know how much higher the returns are with sweatshop labor. The point of post-Reagan capitalism was to make it easier for American investment capital to be partnered with freedom-hating nations who could supply ultra cheap labor and ultra cheap raw material. This suggests that the whole issue of freedom is complicated. Your rant doesn't help us understand any of the interesting stuff.
Frank, your essential premise about incentivizing productivity by letting people realize the highest possible returns on their efforts is not a new idea. We all understand that if you pay people not to work, they won't work. You haven't addressed any of the complicated stuff though. The NYC Subway system and the fucking Brooklyn Bridge was made possible by [things like] government and taxation - by private/public partnerships. Your rant doesn't draw any distinctions. The technology that fueled the 80s consumer electronics boom was hugely dependent on the Cold War Pentagon and NASA. Your rant doesn't explain what is supplied purely by the private sector and what is supplied by Washington. It sounds well-meaning but extremely un-educated. You can do better. You have done better.
People who worked for government died for you in WWII. Ronald Reagan's father was saved by an FDR work program paid for by higher taxes on the wealthy. It was - at the time - understood as an investment in the American people. And it paid dividends in the form of a great president - the 40th. Rather than demonizing government indiscriminately, at least try to understand what government provides that is useful, and what it supplies that isn't. Understand both sides of the equation. Join the debate good man! Say something interesting.
You're so wrong it's impossible to talk to you.
The argument isn't for "no government" I don't know where you get such stupid ideas, it must come from being an Obamaroid.
You don't know what a "free enterprise system" is, so how you think you can comment is, well, it's really funny; it's like listening to someone pretend to know a foreign language, like Pee Wee Hermann speaking French.
Government and infrastructure are essential parts of a Free Enterprise System, we don't rely on them as the engine of economic growth.
Did that help?
You completely miss his point , don't you?
It is not a question of total government control or no government control. It is a careful mixture of the two
The government does not want to run the game, but we need the government to act as a referee ensuring a level playing field