public policies

actsnoblemartin

I love Andrea & April
Mar 7, 2007
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San Diego, CA
what specific policies in the last 100 years have worked or failed and why

Id really like to learn from the elders of the board, about public policy :)
 
Failed: The Federal Reserve, income tax, alcohol prohibition, NRA, WPA and all the other trappings of the Raw Deal, income tax withholding, interventionist foreign wars in Korea & Vietnam and uncounted other countries, propping up despotic dictators like the Shah of Iran and Marcos, Medicare/Medicaid, Social Security, the "wars" on (some) drugs, poverty and terrorism, wage and price controls, CAFE standards, Fannie & Freddie, Keynesian economics in general and Bailout Nation in particular....I could go on and on.

Worked: The Bomb, JFK calling the Russians on their BS in Cuba, the moon shot (marginally, but I'll give it to 'em)...Not too damned much else.
 
compared to WHAT?
We're the greatest nation the world has ever known. Ever.
 
Well, public policy, opposing what many neo-liberal economists have said over the years, can be an effective way to change public behaviour. While there are of course various "alternative" explanations, which can hold their own ground, it is undeniable that various many states have effectively driven their countries to higher growth rates and standards of livings than others (i.e. Compare Guatemala to, for example, South Korea in the past 60 years). Public policy can be an effective tool in somer circumstances better than others though, and of course, the general nature of the state has to be taken into account. This all goes back to the debate about whehther a government is necessry or desireale at all in the first place. Well, is it? I certainly can't think of an alternative. Sure, the current and supposedly "democratic" system is better than the supposedly "communist state" but that is only because state ownership of everything is moronic. And it is highly likely that state ownership of nothing is equally idiotic. Of course less government is better; but better government in general is less government. What we should be striving for is better government, becuase that will lead to less government, not the other way around.

PS: Sorry if I don't make any sense.
 
Public education is failing, Martin. When I was a wee one, a person could attend a public high school in a crappy neighborhood and get a decent education. Not great, but decent enough. I don't think this has been true in at least twenty years, especially in big cities up north.

Poverty programs of all stripes have also failed. We have kids and disabled, elderly and other vulnerable persons who are hungry, homeless or in need of medical care they will not get. Our food pantries are bare and our shelters are overflowing and don't provide safe places to rest. By any measure, these programs are failures except if the measure is "how many government workers are employed to run them or monitor them"?

A healthy system of government encourages or supports the greatest number of people living a middle class life. Not poor and without hope of rising to a better life, and not mega-rich. Ours, for reasons nobody agrees about, has been doing the opposite.

BTW, that was a terrific Op.
 
what specific policies in the last 100 years have worked or failed and why

Id really like to learn from the elders of the board, about public policy :)

I am prolly older than most here, so let me say from my lifes experiences, that republicans have been the anchor on civilization.

Who fought women & minorities from having the vote? Republicans.
Who was against needle exchanged? Republicans.
Who was against gays in the military? Republicans.
Who was against Pornography? Republicans.
Who waged a war against drugs? Republicans.
Who was against drug rehab? Republicans.
Who opposes MJ for medical purposes? Republicans.
Who opposed abortion? Republicans.
Who opposed Welfare? Republicans.
Who opposes education? Republicans.
Who thinks kids are stupid? Republicans.


And so the anchor drags through National Health Care, Medicare, housing, homeless, etc.

So now you know the awful truth if the unAmerican inhumane bastards of the right. Have a drink, that is all these bastards on the right left of America after 8 years.:cool:
 

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